HOW DID THOSE COOKIES GET ON THE CEILING?

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend in preparation? Every morning each of us wake up and prepare our bodies to look presentable. We spend a great deal of time showering, doing our hair, brushing our teeth, and ironing our clothes. (Ok, junior high boys, you might not do all those things yet, but trust me - soon you will.) Your science test at school, the big soccer game next week, and your driver’s license examine all take hours of preparation. Actually, all 13 years of school from Kindergarten to 12th grade is all preparation for the careers we will have in adult life. In addition, many people go on to college for further preparation.

With all this preparation, you would think that all of us would be experts at knowing what to prepare, how to prepare for it, and when to start preparing. But the Bible tells us about one thing that many times we fail to spend time preparing.

In II Chronicles 12, God tells about a king named Rehoboam who ruled over the Southern Kingdom of Israel. Rehoboam started his reign by following the pattern of his godly father Solomon, but he quickly departed from God’s ways and caused the nation of Israel to rebel against God. In response, God brought severe judgment on Rehoboam by allowing the king of Egypt to come and conquer much of Rehoboam’s kingdom. How did a man who started out right turn from the Lord so quickly? God’s Word gives us the answer. “And he [Rehoboam] did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD.” (II Chron. 12:14) I am sure as Rehoboam grew up he had to go through all kinds of schooling and training to prepare him to be the next king, but somewhere along the line Rehoboam missed the most important area of preparation – heart preparation. Oh yes, he knew a lot about God and His Word, but he didn’t prepare his heart to seek to know God personally and serve Him.

The word prepare means “to make ready, set, or establish.” Have you and I made the decision to set our heart to seek after a closer walk with the Lord? Do we spend time reading God’s Word and talking to Him in prayer so that we can get to know him better? Rehoboam failed to prepare his heart to seek God and that decision made his whole life a failure.

One day when I was six or seven years old, my mom gave my oldest sister Brandy permission to make an ice cream cake while my mom went to the store. Everything was going fine, until Brandy started to make the bottom of the cake which was made out of crushed Oreo cookies. She opened the package of Oreos and dumped them into the blender to crush them up; however, she forgot one crucial step – putting the lid on the blender. When she hit that button to turn on the blender, our kitchen was instantly redecorated with a cookie theme. After my mom got home, my sister had to explain why she was cleaning Oreos off the ceiling. Brandy had forgotten just one step of the cake preparation process and disaster followed.

I am sure that each of us will spend time preparing for something before today’s over, but have you prepared your heart to seek God? We can work hard at preparing for lots of good things, but if we don’t decide to following after God with our whole heart, our life will get all messed up. Continue to seek to serve God and know Him better, and your life will be a great success. Don’t skip preparing your heart – you don’t want to end up with cookies on the ceiling!

Pastor Sean Brumbaugh