Hosanna Restoration Church

How many times have you asked someone if they are ready to go? How many times have you said, “I am ready”, but then had to do one more thing? At our house it is the family joke. I am always pressing to get out the door but then I am usually the one who thinks of one more thing to do! With enough time waiting I can always find something more, like one more bottle of water, or even an email; so then the joke is on me. I guess I should just go sit in the car!
The truth is, we do not know what day the Lord will come. We do not know if we even have tomorrow or the next minute. This devotion could end right here.
You do not know this, but is just paused for a few minutes deciding whether that was the end of this devotion or not. That is truly how uncertain life can be, but with God things are not so uncertain.
In exodus when God was giving Moses all the instructions for the alter and tabernacle, I thought, how in the world could he get all that down so he could do it just right. One of the final instructions was about the lamps that were to always be kept burning.
In another passage it says that when the people realized God was concerned about them, they bowed down and worshipped Him. I made a note that I wanted God to always be concerned about me, but never concerned about the way I was living.
All of this relates you know. The five young girls(virgins) and their lamps, the lamps of the tabernacle and the temple, and the way we live; they are all about the same thing. It is about a life looking forward to all God has for us.
When I look at passages like this, I never push them out to a place beyond time. I bring them to the present. I look at them to see how they can best affect my day. Those lamps in the wilderness are a constant reminder to me to remain full of the Holy Spirit. Those lamps were never ever supposed to be allowed to go out. There was no mention of an excuse for it happening. God never said, “If you can’t find oil you have so many days to get it fixed.” No, God simply said keep them burning! I believe He says the same to me.
I know God forgives, but it seems that we often spend more time thinking about how we can be forgiven than we do about living so we do not need to be forgiven! Neglect, dims our lamps. Quenching the Holy Spirit dims our lamps. Compromise dims our lamps. All these things help to make us drowsy. And so, we come to young girls. We find they all became drowsy, but some had plenty of oil even to overcome that. I want to make sure I have an abundant supply of oil. Then I know I am ready and have more than enough to wait for the Lord and go with a full tank.