Christian Living
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Preparing to Meet Jesus: A 21-Day Challenge to Move from Salvation to Transformation
Experience the joy of knowing you are prepared for your first look into the eyes of Jesus.
One day, every believer will experience the wonder of coming face-to-face with Jesus. Can you imagine how thrilling that encounter will be? This unique devotional from Anne Graham Lotz and her daughter Rachel-Ruth leads you on a transformational journey so that you can live fully prepared for the awesome moment of the "first look."
Drawing on the biblical story in which Abraham seeks a woman of character to marry his son Isaac, Preparing to Meet Jesus explores the characteristics God the Father looks for in a bride for His Son, Jesus. Each of these 21 daily reflections, challenges, and prayers reveals how you can pursue a life fully devoted to the One who loves you and gave Himself for you.
Preparing ourselves for Jesus's imminent return is the greatest privilege and responsibility of our lives. Jesus is coming! Are you ready?
One day, every believer will experience the wonder of coming face-to-face with Jesus. Can you imagine how thrilling that encounter will be? This unique devotional from Anne Graham Lotz and her daughter Rachel-Ruth leads you on a transformational journey so that you can live fully prepared for the awesome moment of the "first look."
Drawing on the biblical story in which Abraham seeks a woman of character to marry his son Isaac, Preparing to Meet Jesus explores the characteristics God the Father looks for in a bride for His Son, Jesus. Each of these 21 daily reflections, challenges, and prayers reveals how you can pursue a life fully devoted to the One who loves you and gave Himself for you.
Preparing ourselves for Jesus's imminent return is the greatest privilege and responsibility of our lives. Jesus is coming! Are you ready?
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Short Excerpt Teaser
Day 1
A Family Member
Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.
-Genesis 24:15
When Abraham instructed his faithful servant to find a bride for his beloved son Isaac, he had only one criterion: Make sure you find a young woman who is in the family. His exact words were "Go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."1 He didn't say to his servant, "Travel all the lands in every kingdom, and find Isaac a wife that is drop-dead gorgeous, wealthy, smart, athletic, the life of the party, and a really good cook!" While surely he would have wanted his son's bride to exhibit the qualities we've highlighted in this volume, the success of this mission was based first on her being a member of Abraham's extended family. Why was that so important?
God had promised to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants forever. However, during the time of Abraham, the land was occupied by Canaanites, a broad term used to describe ten tribes that lived in the land. The Canaanites were wicked people that worshipped idols, sacrificed children, and glorified every kind of sexual perversion, to name just a few of their sinful patterns. Abraham had the wisdom to know that Isaac needed a godly wife and that such a woman wouldn't be found among the pagan tribes surrounding them. So he sent his servant on a long trek back to Abraham's hometown of Haran, where his brother's family still lived.
Being a mother of three daughters, two of whom are at the age where they could meet their future spouses, I resonate with Abraham's concern. As you can imagine, each of my daughters has a very different vision of the type of man she hopes to one day marry. There has been much discussion and prayer in our house over what the man of their dreams will be like and look like. But the one thing I always say with absolute conviction is "Make sure he is in God's family!" The primary qualification is that he has to love Jesus with all his heart and be surrendered to the Lord and His will for his life.
Beauty fades; financial prosperity can come and go; athletic records will be broken by the next star. But a marriage centered on a shared love for Jesus will endure whatever life may throw at you. So when one of my daughters calls to tell me she is going on a date, the first thing I ask is if he is a believer. In other words, Is he in God's family?
As I consider what it means to be in the family, I can't help but think of my dad, Danny Lotz. As a teenager, he was an aggressive, six-foot-seven basketball player who started all four years on the basketball team at Northport High School on Long Island, New York, and played pickup basketball in Harlem every chance he got. All that hard work paid off when he received a full basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina. Tar Heel country! While playing under Coach Frank McGuire, my dad and his team had an undefeated season, winning the 1957 national championship in triple overtime against Kansas.
I obviously wasn't alive at that time, but growing up, I saw the many perks my dad enjoyed from being a part of the Tar Heel's basketball family: season tickets to athletic events, membership in the lettermen's club, camaraderie with all the former and current players and coaches, a fiftieth anniversary ring ceremony honoring their dream championship season, photos of their team on display in the Dean Dome, an entire museum dedicated to UNC basketball, and the list goes on. Wherever legendary UNC coach Dean Smith was, if he saw my dad, he would stop everything to go talk with him. Because when you are part of UNC basketball, you are part of an exclusive family! When longtime head coach Roy Williams announced his retirement in 2021, many former UNC players made it clear that the school needed to hire a new coach within "the family." They did!
As exclusive as the UNC basketball family is, or Abraham's family was, God's family is even more exclusive. Even so, anyone is welcome to join! It doesn't matter what you look like-your height, your weight, your skin color. It doesn't matter how many academic degrees you have or don't have, how many championships you've won or lost, how much money is in your bank account or if you're overdrawn, or whether the latest fashions are hanging in your closet or you can't remember when you had new clothes. It doesn't matter how many times you've helped an old lady across the street, stopped along the road to fix someone's tire, cooked a meal for a sick friend, or given time or money to a homeless shelter. None of these things matter, because it's not about good...
A Family Member
Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.
-Genesis 24:15
When Abraham instructed his faithful servant to find a bride for his beloved son Isaac, he had only one criterion: Make sure you find a young woman who is in the family. His exact words were "Go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."1 He didn't say to his servant, "Travel all the lands in every kingdom, and find Isaac a wife that is drop-dead gorgeous, wealthy, smart, athletic, the life of the party, and a really good cook!" While surely he would have wanted his son's bride to exhibit the qualities we've highlighted in this volume, the success of this mission was based first on her being a member of Abraham's extended family. Why was that so important?
God had promised to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants forever. However, during the time of Abraham, the land was occupied by Canaanites, a broad term used to describe ten tribes that lived in the land. The Canaanites were wicked people that worshipped idols, sacrificed children, and glorified every kind of sexual perversion, to name just a few of their sinful patterns. Abraham had the wisdom to know that Isaac needed a godly wife and that such a woman wouldn't be found among the pagan tribes surrounding them. So he sent his servant on a long trek back to Abraham's hometown of Haran, where his brother's family still lived.
Being a mother of three daughters, two of whom are at the age where they could meet their future spouses, I resonate with Abraham's concern. As you can imagine, each of my daughters has a very different vision of the type of man she hopes to one day marry. There has been much discussion and prayer in our house over what the man of their dreams will be like and look like. But the one thing I always say with absolute conviction is "Make sure he is in God's family!" The primary qualification is that he has to love Jesus with all his heart and be surrendered to the Lord and His will for his life.
Beauty fades; financial prosperity can come and go; athletic records will be broken by the next star. But a marriage centered on a shared love for Jesus will endure whatever life may throw at you. So when one of my daughters calls to tell me she is going on a date, the first thing I ask is if he is a believer. In other words, Is he in God's family?
As I consider what it means to be in the family, I can't help but think of my dad, Danny Lotz. As a teenager, he was an aggressive, six-foot-seven basketball player who started all four years on the basketball team at Northport High School on Long Island, New York, and played pickup basketball in Harlem every chance he got. All that hard work paid off when he received a full basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina. Tar Heel country! While playing under Coach Frank McGuire, my dad and his team had an undefeated season, winning the 1957 national championship in triple overtime against Kansas.
I obviously wasn't alive at that time, but growing up, I saw the many perks my dad enjoyed from being a part of the Tar Heel's basketball family: season tickets to athletic events, membership in the lettermen's club, camaraderie with all the former and current players and coaches, a fiftieth anniversary ring ceremony honoring their dream championship season, photos of their team on display in the Dean Dome, an entire museum dedicated to UNC basketball, and the list goes on. Wherever legendary UNC coach Dean Smith was, if he saw my dad, he would stop everything to go talk with him. Because when you are part of UNC basketball, you are part of an exclusive family! When longtime head coach Roy Williams announced his retirement in 2021, many former UNC players made it clear that the school needed to hire a new coach within "the family." They did!
As exclusive as the UNC basketball family is, or Abraham's family was, God's family is even more exclusive. Even so, anyone is welcome to join! It doesn't matter what you look like-your height, your weight, your skin color. It doesn't matter how many academic degrees you have or don't have, how many championships you've won or lost, how much money is in your bank account or if you're overdrawn, or whether the latest fashions are hanging in your closet or you can't remember when you had new clothes. It doesn't matter how many times you've helped an old lady across the street, stopped along the road to fix someone's tire, cooked a meal for a sick friend, or given time or money to a homeless shelter. None of these things matter, because it's not about good...
