With Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day of 2014 approaching quickly, our anticipation should be near its peak. Whether you have been planning for a year, a week, or somewhere in between, there are probably details in your life that need to be coordinated to ensure that you can observe these days to their fullest potential. Preparing our clothes, packing our things, and making final arrangements are all necessary for those who are traveling. But, getting our minds in the right shape is what we really need to focus on, while casting physical distractions that impede our spiritual preparation out from our field of view.
We may encounter real, genuine obstacles to our physical preparation for the Feast days. Perhaps getting time off from work is a challenge, or perhaps our travel arrangements have seemingly impossible gaps that we don’t know how to fill, or maybe we have something at home that needs our attention. These obstacles, and others, are instruments that Satan will use to keep us focused on the physical world – the world that he rules – and turn us away from spiritually preparing.
A large part of preparing for the Fall Holy Days involves setting priorities in order. This is a time of the year when we are especially commanded to draw near to God, and we can only imagine how angry and jealous this makes Satan. He will look for our weaknesses, and tempt us to find reasons not to observe God’s Feasts. As we are advised in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” With this in mind, let us be prepared to overcome the weaknesses that cause us to neglect observing the Feast with the right spiritual state of mind.
When we are told to be sober and vigilant, this means that we must be on guard, especially when we know that our actions are an affront to Satan, causing him to become angry with us. This can be a very difficult affair. The strength that we have personally might not be enough to confront the temptations we encounter, but fortunately, we have the strength of Jesus Christ living in us to help. Paul reflects upon this fact in his own life in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This strength promised to us includes the ability to face the physical obstacles that we experience on our path to observe the Feast.
The world may throw obstacles in our way, distracting us from our spiritual growth, but this world is passing away (1 John 2:15). An age of perfect Spiritual rule will imminently replace it. What better way to prepare for that coming age than to make ourselves spiritually ready for the upcoming Feast days this year? Whatever physical and spiritual state we are in, we must be certain that we allow nothing to stand in the way of our observance of these Feast days to the absolute best of our ability—and with God’s help we can!
Are you ready?
