Unblinded Faith: Open Your Eyes To God’s PromisesSmakprov

## Prepared and Equipped Would you love to be prepared and equipped for the opportunities and obstacles that come your way? How about being inspired by God in a way that makes you feel as if you have soul fuel to press on? Sounds good to me! My mom is queen of preparations. Case in point: she must have thought I was going to Outer Mongolia with the way she packed for my freshman year in college. We filled a storage trunk with stockpiles of toiletries and cleaning supplies. A decade after graduating from college, I was still hauling around items from that trunk, which my husband teasingly referred to as the traveling pharmacy. We might laugh about it now, but the reality is, I’m still bent toward being overly prepared. I’ll buy two of a grocery item, “just in case we run out.” I’ll have snacks in every bag, “just in case I get hungry.” Can you relate? Yet I’ve lived long enough to know that being prepared with a storehouse of stuff doesn’t compare to having a heart and mind prepared and equipped by God through His Word. If we long to face each day prepared and equipped, we need to start each day inspired and steeped in the Word. Within the Scriptures, we find all that we need for discerning what to believe as truth and what to do with the lies the Enemy of God will toss our way (John 3:16; 8:44; 14:6). Through reading the Word, we’ll discover what to do with our sin because we can’t handle it ourselves. That’s the work of the cross, where Jesus laid down His life for our sin. We’ll also learn how to experience the fullness of Christ dwelling in our hearts, infusing our lives with His peace, presence and unquenchable joy. And we’ll uncover the wisdom of God and how to make choices that keep us within the bounty of His blessings. The Word is really the one and only training manual we’ll ever need for living the full and abundant life God offers us (John 10:10), despite the challenges and trials we’ll face. So what’s standing in the way of using it?