Prepared

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 To please the recruiter, no one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of everyday life. 5 Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hardworking farmer who ought to be the first to get a share of the crops.

2 Tim 2:3-6 (HCSB)

I was never a boy scout, but I understand that the boy scout's motto is "be prepared."  This should be the motto of the Christ follower as well.  As Paul writes to Timothy his suggestions of preparation are slightly different.  Perhaps we could even say Paul is telling Timothy to expect certain things as a Christ follower.

The first is to expect suffering.  As a Christ follower, or soldier of Jesus we should be prepared to suffer.  Expect it.  It goes agains the grain of what our expectations are.  We think that if we are serving Jesus we should be happy and everything will be good.  The problem is that never in the Bible is that suggested to us.  Rather, we are told to be prepared for suffering.

Second is to be prepared to play by the rules.  In other words we need to know how to play the game.  The Christ follower is really not playing a game but we must understand clearly what the "rules" are.  I think God's word is clear about life and God's expectations for us.  We live with a different World view and we must always keep that in mind.

Last we should prepare to reap a harvest.  There is a reward.  We like that expectation!  We harvest lives changed.  But we also harvest a reward that is beyond this world.  It is very possible, perhaps even likely that you will never see the reward in this life, but Heaven holds a cornucopia of rewards.

Be prepared for all that you should expect as a Christ follower.