Ready With Foolishness or Wise with Preparation
Matthew 25:1-10 Amplified Bible (AMP)
25 Then
the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and
went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish
(thoughtless, without forethought) and five were wise (sensible, intelligent,
and prudent).3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they did
not take any [extra] oil with them;4 But the wise took flasks
of oil along with them [also] with their lamps.5 While the
bridegroom lingered and was slow in coming, they all began nodding their
heads, and they fell asleep.6 But at midnight there was a
shout, Behold, the bridegroom! Go out to meet him!7 Then all
those virgins got up and put their own lamps in order.8 And the
foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going
out.9 But the wise replied, There will not be enough for us and
for you; go instead to the dealers and buy for yourselves.10 But
while they were going away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were
prepared went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut.
One of the things that inevitably are a challenge each
year during the Holiday season is that we make a list go shopping and we end up
having to make several trips back to the store because my daughter has
forgotten to put something on the list. Every
year as tempers have flared and complaints were waged, I vowed to do things
differently. Well last year it was
different my husband and I asked my daughter to not just make a list but to
write out the menu, and then write out the ingredients that were a part of each
recipe and then to make a list based on what she had written. Needless to say, we did not have the same
issues we have encountered in years passed.
You see the difference is that winging it was foolishness when
undertaking such a big project, but to strategically plan out the process, was
wisdom and saved us gas, time money and aggravation. In the years preceding we
were ready for the traditional foolishness that we had grown accustomed to and
last year we had prepared wisely and with deliberate organization.
We often approach our relationship with God in an
unorganized manner, and we come with Him with foolishness that we expect Him to
flow with. We ask God to bless our mess
and to give us more when we are not even taking care of or using wisdom to
govern what we have. We are still
entangled in foolishness and we think that we can obtain His promises and the
blessings of God being ill prepared and not even knowing what God’s word has to
say concerning what we are asking for or in need of. We want God to be what we want Him to be, but
rarely do we want Him to be what we need Him to be; even more of a rarity is
the fact that we do not want to be what He needs us to be. We often ask for
things without first asking for His wisdom, guidance and direction. How can we
sufficiently govern God’s promises and His Blessings if we have chosen the way
of foolishness over the way of wisdom?
How can we operate in spiritual matters in a natural state of
evaluation? Many of us think that our wisdom
is God’s wisdom, but it is not. God asks us to study to show ourselves
approved, He asks us to be ready in season and out, He asks us to be the light
and the salt, He ask us to show others the way as we have been shown the way, He
asked us to live Holy and to be in the world but not of it; but yet we think
that approaching these things with no real knowledge or preparation is
alright. We don’t think that someone’s
life may depend on us coming out of our own foolishness to become wise in our
pursuit of God and the things of God. We
never think that all of the excuses that we have been using not to get what God
is asking done are hindering us a=or anyone else but they are. I have heard our Pastor say, on many of occasion,
“so many of us know how to do church but not how to have a relationship with
God.” This is because we are ill
prepared to apply ourselves and put in the much needed work and time in to come
out of the foolishness of going through the motions, making excuses or looking
to God only to get and never to really give of ourselves.
Just as some of these virgins in the parable, took time
to be prepared for the season that they were to step into by using wisdom and
fore thought, how many of us are doing the same? Are we just expecting God to answer all of
our demands and request when He cannot even get simple life of obedience from
us in our thoughts, words or deeds in our daily living? Or are we seeking wisdom, in order to live in
His will, are wisely acknowledging that we need God to even take a step towards
anything good? Many of us are ready with
foolishness, fleshly wisdom and worldly comprehension, instead of the wisdom of
God, and the mind of Christ; we think that we can get what God has just based
short cuts, cheating the system and half stepping, but we have to come to a
place of realizing God want it all; He wants every stitch of who we are, sold
out to Him, no excuses necessary! He
wants us to realize that our wisdom is His foolishness and we need to be knowledgeable
of who He is and apply His wisdom to our daily living and especially as we
approach the seasons, directions and the journeys that He is taking us to. I would rather be well prepared with God than
to be unprepared with man any day. Think about it, it just may save you a lot of
time, effort and frustration, and get you an audience with the King!
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