This is it. The final year of the Mayan calendar has begun. Predictions abound that the end of the world is imminent – this year. However, most of those predictions rely on speculative theories, superstition and misapplication of science. We should all know better than to be influenced by such nonsense. The fact remains, as stated in Matthew 24:36 “… of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” Human predictions, no matter how thoroughly researched, will fail.

What we do seem to know is that many of us will be able to see the end of these days coming if we watch closely for the events of prophecy to unfold. And certainly, based on the current events of the times, prophecy is unfolding before our eyes.  Yet even with the ability to see and understand how prophecy will be fulfilled, this knowledge only lets us know that the Kingdom of God is near (compare Luke 22:31). Dates and times of events will remain a secret kept by God the Father alone.

Does it make you uneasy to know that dates and times of the end of this age are hidden to us? Does it make you uncomfortable to know that you may be caught off guard by the return of Christ? Is it disconcerting to you that you cannot answer the question, “How much time is left?”

If the answer is “Yes” to any of the questions above, we need to take some time to meditate on whether we have our priorities in order. The time we have left may be short, but we are not to value this physical  life we live more than the eternal life waiting for us (John 12:25). If we want to know how much time we have left before Jesus Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God, we need to ask ourselves why we want to know dates and times in the first place. Are there things we want to experience in this life before that time comes? Do we need this information so we know how much time we have to prepare ourselves? A deadline certainly helps plan, right? Make no mistake, we need to prepare spiritually so that we are fully converted, but this preparation should begin at the moment we commit our lives to God. Once we make that commitment, our hearts should be faithful to drop everything and follow the path of righteousness in front of us. And that is what it takes to be prepared for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

Every day we have the opportunity to practice how to handle the coming of the end of this age. Every day, we make choices between following the paths of Godly righteousness, or something less. When the day of the Lord is upon us, we will be faced with the very same kind of decisions. Choose right, or not. Choosing what is right and good is all we can ever do, both now and in the future. If we consistently choose what is right and are faithful to do it in the future we should be ready at any time, making the amount of time between now and the return of Christ irrelevant.

As the United States prepares for another presidential campaign in the coming year, hopeful candidates begin to present their plans and ideas for how they can get the country back on track. Whether it has to do with reducing public debt, solving the problem of health care, or creating jobs, the candidates present their answers with an abundance of confidence and hubris. Taken at face value, all of the candidates would appear to solve the country’s troubles, if only elected into the presidential office.
 
It may be a pessimistic prediction, but we can be reasonably sure that whoever will be elected president of the United States next year will not bring about any lasting solutions, and in all likelihood, will cause a further decline in international favor. With prophecy in the equation, the pessimistic prediction becomes a realistic certainty. The Bible makes it clear that man’s answers to his own problems, when God is not in the picture, are doomed to ultimate failure.
 
The only way to escape imminent destruction is through repentance and returning to God. Recall the story of Nineveh, when the city repented in a comprehensive manner, directed from the leadership (compare Jonah 3:5-8). At that time, the disobedience of the people in that city aroused the anger in God, who threatened to destroy it.  However, after hearing about the prophesied destruction that would come upon them, the inhabitants took it to heart and changed. As a result, God too changed His mind. Jonah 3:10 reads, “Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”
 
Can you imagine any secular politician campaigning on a platform of returning to the one true God and His laws? Can you imagine a candidate presenting the simple act of repentance of our sins as the solution to the country’s problems? To say the least, it is far-fetched to even conceive of that happening. And even those who may occasionally speak of God and the Bible and our “Judeo-Christian heritage” do not represent the true God, nor do they even understand, let alone embrace and live, the timeless laws of the Ten Commandments, statutes and judgments. Instead, as man’s history repeats itself, God’s ways will continue to be rejected in favor of his own solutions (compare Mark 7:9). Yet, repentance is what must happen to turn the direction of our countries and the world around.
 
Sadly, such a turn in direction will not happen with the re-election of the current president of the United States, nor the election of a different one. However, we do know, through the prophecy of the Word of God, that a righteous kingdom will be established on earth. At that time, the hearts of the people living on earth will turn, as they did in Nineveh (compare Malachi 4:6). While we can be sure that the current or a new president of the United States will not take that path, we look forward to the time when God’s kingdom will be established. At that time, Isaiah 9:7 will become a reality:  “Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” May that time come quickly.

The Bible is very clear about its instruction for us to be careful when we plan our activities in life, and in nothing is this more true than in our commitment to God. In the context of understanding our level of commitment to Him, Jesus provides us a comparison in Luke 14:28: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.” Jesus then goes on to say that if for the sake of discipleship, we are not willing to give up everything detrimental to God’s Way of Life, we are not worthy to be a disciple. Our sacrifice for the sake of following Christ must be comprehensive.  Since this commitment is so comprehensive, it is easy to slip up on.

A common aphorism is that failing to plan is planning to fail. But, how about plans that fail? Even if we have seriously “counted the cost” and think our commitment and sacrifices are complete and genuine, we will certainly find blind spots where we fail. How often are our intentions good and we have seemingly prepared everything to the best of our ability, but then we find ourselves behaving inconsistently? Is there something we can do?

Fortunately, God has provided us a way to correct our paths. Just as a global positioning system [GPS] or a satellite-based navigation system will recalculate a path for us when we get off track, the gift of repentance is a tool that we can use to obtain forgiveness, when we find that we are off track (compare Acts 5:31). However, repentance and forgiveness only work when we go through the process of evaluating the success of our plans. In order to do this evaluation, we first need to know where we plan to go. Only then can we even know that we are in need of a course correction.

Expanding on the example cited above, before counting the cost to build a tower, we first need to know that we want to build a tower. We must firmly establish our commitment to God, knowing that it is the most important thing in our lives, and then make the plans for how to work towards it.

The Bible gives us encouragement regarding the plans we make. It may be true that we have a righteous goal in mind – to commit our lives to God – but the steps in our plan to achieve that goal need to be consistent. The Bible is full of stories about people who had seemingly good intents, but poor plans, doing what was right in their own eyes (compare Judges 17:6). God must direct the plans we make (compare Proverbs 16:9). If we allow Him to do so and follow His lead, we are encouraged that we will have help and support along the way (compare Psalm 121:3). God wants us to succeed, but our success is only possible if we accept and choose God’s right goal and plan for us.