The following is a quote from legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant: “It’s not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win, that matters.” I’ve coached enough youth sports teams in years past to know that kids, and I might add, coaches, all want to win. But not all want to “prepare” to win. In sports, preparation is a matter of will. The will to prepare involves a lot of effort. John Wooden, great basketball coach at UCLA said: “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”

 

Most people want to go to Heaven, but that number dwindles when it comes to preparing to go there. In John 14: 3, Jesus said: “And I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am you may be also.” But, if you want Jesus to receive you into that prepared place to be with Him, you must prepare yourself to meet Him when He returns. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people!

 

The parable of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25: 1-3 teaches the value of preparation. Just as their unpreparedness cost the foolish virgins a place at the marriage feast, just so, our unpreparedness can cost us Heaven. Jesus closed this parable by saying: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” Being wise and constantly ready is the appropriate course to take, for Jesus can come at any time. The words of the hymn, Prepare To Meet Thy God says it well: “Why so thoughtless are you standing while the fleeting years go by, and your life is spent in folly? O prepare to meet thy God. Careless soul, O heed the warning, for your life will soon be gone; O how sad to face the judgment, unprepared to meet thy God.”

 

Have you obeyed God? (Heb. 5: 9). Are you doing His will? (Matt. 7: 21). Have your sins been washed away in Jesus’ blood (Rev. 1: 5; Acts 22: 16). Think on these things.

 

Dennis Abernathy