Be Prepared and Ready

“Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:2 NLT

In a story published by WSAW-TV last week, it was reported that Allen Stegner, who stopped to help a fellow runner after they collapsed while running the Illinois Marathon, and the Wausau Fire Department are encouraging everyone to get CPR certified because, they say, every minute that goes by decreases a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest. Alan Stenger is a cardiac device specialist, he was running the Illinois Marathon when he noticed a runner collapse. Stenger and several others went to check on the man. One minute he was speaking to them, the next minute he lost consciousness. That’s when Stenger and the others jumped into action. “Two of us were former paramedics, so we had a good number of people there who were trained and capable of CPR that we were able to get that started until ultimately you know we got 911 called and we were able to direct them where to go eventually,” said Stengner. Stenger also told me the part of the race route where this happened made it even more important to start CPR right away.

And you know, as this story clearly illustrates, the need to provide CPR to a person in need can come when we least expect it. Which is the very reason that every person, not just the experts, should be ’trained and capable’ to give it. In the same way, every believer of Jesus Christ should “be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not” to “preach the word of God.” You see, there are millions of people in our world that are in spiritual cardiac arrest, people that will die in their sin and spend eternity in hell if the life-saving Message of the Gospel is not shared with them. Which means we must ALL be ready to preach it at ALL times… both when it’s hard, and when it’s’ easy, when it falls on receptive ears, and when it doesn’t…  not leaving it up to the experts (aka pastors) to do the job. 

So in a world that’s growing increasingly hostile to the name of the only One who has the power to save the soul, let us be all the more determined to be trained in the Word and capable of sharing it and defending it so we will be ready to act when a person goes down. 

Heavenly Father, thank You for the reminder that there are spiritually collapsed people all over our world today that are oblivious to the fate that awaits them if their condition is not cured. Lord, fill our hearts so full of love for the lost that we are compelled to study the Word so that we will be ‘trained and capable’ of preaching it and teaching it wherever and whenever it is necessary. It’s in your precious name we pray Jesus. Amen. 

Happy Running!