Matthew 25:1–13 ‘The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.’ (v14)
The story of the ten girls who were waiting for the bridegroom to appear is a sobering one. Five of these lamp-carrying ‘bridesmaids’ ran out of oil for their lamps, and left to get some when the cry came that the bridegroom had arrived (v6), but by the time they were ready, it was too late for them to attend the wedding banquet.
When Jesus told this story, He was illustrating a far greater point. The bridegroom ‘was a long time in coming’ (v5) so some of the ‘bridesmaids’ had become careless. The words ‘And the door was shut’ (v10) so they couldn’t take part in the celebrations indicate a sad finality.
This should cause us all to think about how serious we are in following Jesus; for this is a picture of our heavenly Bridegroom, coming back for His Bride, the Church; will we be ready for Him?
So many things can slide into our lives so that we become unfruitful. Gossip, even in the disguise of shared prayer; critical attitudes; apathy; even idolatry.
Anything that sneaks into our lives and becomes more important than God Himself could be termed an idol, even if it is something we’d generally think of as good: a hobby, job, sport, or a relationship.
We need to be very careful to keep the Lord as ‘number one’ when we are tempted to slide back a little in our walk with him. Sometimes we don’t even recognise that we have lost our fervour.
Let’s check our prayer life, our Bible reading and how we feel about fellowship. The Lord is coming soon – let’s make sure we are ready!
A Prayer To Make:
‘Father, please show me areas of my life where You want to reignite
the flame of desire for You and Your kingdom. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.’
An Action To Take:
Take your spiritual temperature! Hot, cold, or lukewarm?
Spend some time asking God to reignite your love and fervour for Him.
Scripture To Consider:
Exod. 32:1–25; Prov. 26:18–21; Matt: 24:1–51; Rev. 3:14–22
