Devotionals

Devotional - week of February 9, 2014

ARE YOU MAKING PREPARATION

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10

We all are familiar with the words “cramming for a test.” Probably, we all have had the experience—many times for some of us. We have wanted to keep our grades up or keep from failing the course.

Of course, those who have studied throughout the semester are never as desperate as those who have not put in the study time.

Our passage, 2 Corinthians 5:10, tells us that we will face a far more serious experience of accountability than any test we have faced before. This is not a test determining our salvation. It is a time when we will account for us lives since we became a Christian. With the words, “we are all,” Paul is referring to all Christians. At this judgment we will receive or not receive crowns and rewards. We know little about the crowns and rewards, but they must be important to the Lord and should be to us.

So how do we prepare for our time of judgment? God has a plan for each of us. We will be judged on how well we have walked in God’s plan for our lives. However, God does not leave the fulfillment of His plan for us just up to us.

When we were saved, the door was open for us to have fellowship with God. Our first need is for us to receive from the Lord His daily plan for our lives. However, that alone is not all God provides. He will provide all the wisdom and strength for us to live out His plan.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul expresses how he lives out God’s plan with the words, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” That same privilege is open to each of us.