(Un)Expected

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not (Matthew 25:1–12, KJV).

Each of us have certain expectations in life—things we strongly believe will happen. But, there’s a risk we take when we expect life to pan out a certain way. When we don’t prepare, when we don’t expect for the unexpected, we will miss critical opportunities and blessings from God.

Of the 10 virgins in Scripture, 5 took oil for their lamps and assumed they didn’t need any more. There is a blessing in being prepared—in expecting the unexpected. We must take the time to be prepared. In the onslaught of daily life, we have many activities that occupy our time. Our excuse in taking the time to prepare is our lack of time. But, we shouldn’t be too busy to get the oil for our journey. In our walk with God, this oil is the Holy Ghost.

We must reprioritize our life and determine if we want to make heaven our home, we must prepare and store up extra oil for our journey. If we don’t focus on the Lord, God will place things in our life to “inconvenience us,” so we can focus on the right things—our relationship with Him.

Life is unexpected—we can’t plan for everything. But, when the unplanned situations arise, we must trust the Lord. God has promised to endue us with the strength and the power to endure every trial. That power, anointing, strength, and peace all comes from the oil of the Holy Ghost.

There’s so many aspects to our relationship with God that go beyond the exterior. We should have an intimate relationship with Him so He can order our steps in accordance with His plan (Psalms 37:23). If we are going to have enough oil in our lamps, we may have to harvest it out of circumstances we find uncomfortable.

For the 10 virgins, at one point, all of their lamps were lit. But, somewhere during the night, 5 lamps went out. We need to keep the oil in our lamps; we need to prepare for the (un)expected. The lack of oil in our life isn’t because the Lord has withheld it (Isaiah 59:1). He supplies it, but we have to seek after it.