Possess Your Vessel

 The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But deliverance is of the Lord 

- Proverbs 21:31- 

Sometimes we hit our stride, we are prepared for what lies ahead - until time gives its vote. Time is one of the great levelers, one of the great testers. Much like pressure can produce diamonds or it can cause explosions - time can prove and validate preparation, or it can reveal a weak will. What does time reveal about you? Are you consistent, and does time prove that? 

The relationship of preparation to time is not one of a graduate degree to a career in higher ed, in which once it is achieved tenure is right down the road - it is more akin to fighting a living and breathing foe, in which case each day you train, he also trains and therefore your perseverance in the day of testing will depend upon your ‘consistent’ preparation. If you stop preparing even for a day, if you cease to train and yet he does not you will surely be struck down in the engagement. Time with preparation is a powerful tool, but time with idleness deteriorates even the strongest.

 We must redeem time for it is Evil - Ephesians 5:16 - 

If we sit by idly we will not be ready for the day of deliverance. That Great War horse will have shaken off his saddle and will have become fragile. 

Do not sit idly assuming the evil that will greet you one day will not require you to have prepared. 

“For this is the Will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

Later in this letter Paul goes on to urge the Thessalonians to increase more and more, to aspire to live a quiet life working with their hands, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in everything, to test all things, holding fast to what is good and abstaining from what is evil. 

This is preparation: ‘without ceasing’ 

This is consistency: ‘test all things’ 

This is the war horse prepared for the Lord to bring Deliverance

Possess your Vessel.