A Calling to Prepare (Daily Refresh, 11-30, YouVersion)

Just days before He would die on the cross, Jesus spoke these words to His followers:

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”
Matthew 24:42 NIV

He knew exactly when He would die. He knew the hour of His resurrection. He knew the plan, the timing, and the weight of everything unfolding around Him.

But here, during a series of parables, Jesus shifts His focus to what’s still ahead: His return. And He makes one thing clear—we won’t know when it’s coming. No date on the calendar. No countdown clock. Just this charge: Keep watch.

Why? Because when we live with spiritual alertness and urgency, we prioritize what matters. We live awake to the work of God around us. We live watchful over our own hearts, refusing to drift into complacency.

If every day could be the day Jesus returns, then we must live every day with the same obedience to His calling for us.

Jesus isn’t calling us to panic; He’s calling us to prepare. He’s inviting us to stay faithful and hopeful in a world that can dull our sense of eternity. To keep our hearts anchored in the truth that this world is not our final home—and He is coming again to make all things new.

So we watch and wait, but not complacently. Instead, we live today in light of that glorious day to come.

My Thoughts

Most, if not all of us, have watched the countdown clock in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. We watch with delight and anticipation, with the hope and promise that the New Year may bring.

Should we not also watch daily with that same hope and anticipation for the return of Jesus? We don’t know when He is coming back, but we know for certainty that it is going to happen. We need to always be prepared.

We prepare for company to come by cleaning our houses and making good food, perhaps even planning activities together for after the meal. We wait with happy anticipation for their arrival and then enjoy the visit.

How do we prepare for Christ to return? We pray, we read His Word, we seek His face and we tell others about Him so that they can joyfully expect His return, also. We are not supposed to be idle while we wait. He gave us a job to do and is watching to see if we are carrying out His instructions. We are not supposed to just take for granted that we will be ready for His return but go about our lives as though we have all the time in the world to get ready for Jesus to come back. We can’t know that, so we have to always be ready. You don’t pack your suitcase when your train has already arrived at the station. You pack it long before you go to meet the train. That is why we have to pack now, be ready now, because we don’t know when the Lord will return and we want to be prepared. That’s why we have to live awake to God’s Word, listening for Him to speak to us. And we have to live watchful over our own hearts, not getting tired of waiting, but always hopeful that today might be the day.