“Prepare” and Prepared

By David Tingley

Aligning Our Efforts With God’s Work in 2025 and Beyond

My friend Josh — a former youth pastor turned financial advisor (or “financial pastor,” as he prefers to call himself) — has a New Year’s tradition that I’ve tried to adopt over the years. Instead of having a specific New Year’s resolution that may well run out of steam by the second Friday in January (if you take the new Apple Watch commercial’s word for it), he enlists a “Word of the Year” to set the trajectory for his intentions and actions of the year. From “deeper” to “joy” to “lead” to “truth” (the 2025 selection), Josh’s Word of the Year serves as a guiding light into the darkness of the unknown decisions and undertakings that lie before him in the coming year.

Being grounded in the truth of God’s Word, however, Josh’s Words of the Year are no shot in the dark. Accompanying each Word of the Year is a Scripture “Verse of the Year,” such as Psalm 28:7, which provided the word “strength” for 2022: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.”

Or, turning to 2025, John 17:17 brings out the word “truth” as this year’s guiding light for Josh: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” Faced with situations where truth is lacking, or circumstances where the truth hurts, may Jesus’ sanctifying prayer of John 17:17 offer Josh the truth that continually sets him free in 2025.

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“To prepare is on us.”

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Paths of Preparation

Texting Josh on New Year’s Day this year, while attempting to start another ambitious New Year’s campaign of my own — this time to read through the entire New Testament in its original language (Koine/Hellenistic Greek) — my own Word of the Year jumped off the page at me: “prepare.” The Gospel of Mark (which the majority of scholars believe was the first Gospel written) begins this way: “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way’ — ‘a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’” (Mark 1:1–3).

Since I am a doctoral student with comprehensive/qualifying exams coming up at the end of the year, I resonated with the word “prepare” in the very first Scripture passage I read in 2025. Not only is “prepare” an imperative for me — that is, something I must do (and do well!) — it is also something that is being done to me. As I prepare for my exams, I am also being prepared by the Lord for them, and for whatever else He has in mind for my role in His kingdom.

Mark 1:1–3 puts two Old Testament verses — Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 — into the service of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus, particularly with respect to the appearance of Jesus’ warm-up act — John the Baptizer. Malachi 3:1 (quoted in Mark 1:2) states in the future tense what John ends up doing for Jesus: He “will prepare your way.” This preparation of Jesus’ way is what the rest of Mark 1:1–11 narrates — namely, John’s ministry of preaching and baptizing, aimed at the people’s repentance and forgiveness, including the surprising yet powerful baptism of Jesus. Following John’s “mission statement” of Malachi 3:1, then, is the imperative of Isaiah 40:3 (quoted in Mark 1:3), which reverberates from Isaiah to John and even to us: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him” (italics mine).

To prepare is on us. It’s on me. It’s on you. I have to prepare for my exams, for my calling, for the unknown decisions and trials that lie before me even this year. And so do you.

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“As we go about preparing for the Lord and for our roles in His kingdom, He is certainly at work preparing (and building and equipping) us as well.”

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Questions, Intentions, Actions

With such preparation comes questions. How, for example, does the rapid onset of artificial intelligence (AI) affect both students and teachers in the field of higher education in which I am preparing to work, not to mention countless other fields of work and areas of our lives? Or how does the newly inaugurated Trump administration — a boon for some and a grievance for others — affect our ability to compassionately and cooperatively continue the mission of Jesus in our communities? For these things and others, we must prepare.

The Greek word translated “prepare” in Mark 1:3 (hetoimazō) refers to causing the readiness of things. For example, God has “prepared” a heavenly city for those who endure in Christian faith/faithfulness (Hebrews 11:16). The word also refers to the preparation of people.

In Luke 1:17, for instance, the angel Gabriel speaks a prophetic word concerning John to his father, Zechariah, before the Baptizer was even born: “And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Not only did John the Baptizer’s ministry prepare the way for Jesus; it also prepared the people for Jesus. An additional Greek word of preparation is used in this verse. John’s task to “make ready” (hetoimazō again) the people is accompanied by the word “prepared” (kataskeyazō), describing the prepared state of the people John is coming to make ready/prepare! This additional “preparing” word is used in contexts of building/construction (e.g., 1 Peter 3:20) and furnishing/equipping (e.g., Hebrews 9:2) as well as in contexts where people or things are being made ready for some particular purpose (e.g., Luke 1:17).

God’s preparing of us as His people thus aligns well with the building metaphors used elsewhere in the New Testament, such as in 1 Peter 2:4–5, which says that those who come to Jesus are “being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” As we go about preparing for the Lord and for our roles in His kingdom, He is certainly at work preparing (and building and equipping) us as well.

“Prepare” is my Word of the Year. May the Lord use it to set the trajectory of my intentions and actions, to guide me into the darkness of the unknown questions and challenges ahead of me in 2025. Whether or not you’re inclined to have a Word of the Year, you’re probably still preparing for something, or for someone, of some kind — for exams that may challenge you, for changes that may disorient you, for responsibilities and relationships that may deepen you. So, as we go about preparing in 2025, we can do so in the confidence that God is also preparing us for and through the good works that He has also “prepared in advance” (proetoimazō) for us (Ephesians 2:10), that we might walk in them in 2025 and beyond.

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