Prepare…to Meet God
“In You, O Lord, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed.” (Psalm 31:1 NKJV)
A friend of ours once told the story of visiting Scotland and staying in a private home overnight. The next morning, he looked up at his hosts’ dining room wall to find these words on a plaque: “PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD.”
Our friend is a Christian, but he was still a bit perturbed at the ominous tone of the words…not a cheery breakfast greeting. His story reminded me of “The Princess Bride” movie and the repeated threat by Inigo Montoya, “Prepare to die!”
My husband recently found a similar antique plaque at an online auction, purchased it, and gave it to me at Christmas. It proudly hangs on our kitchen wall now to greet our guests. I’m curious to see how they react to this contemplative little piece.
The plaque is a ceramic tray known as lustreware, probably made in the early 1800s in the River Tyne region of England, not far from the border with Scotland. It features the same fearsome words from the prophet Amos, “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel” (Amos 4:12 KJV).
God’s words in this chapter begin with a litany of transgressions on the part of the Israelites, followed by the specific punishments He doled out to them as consequences. God reminds His people over and over, “Yet you have not returned to Me.”
He closes with a declaration that He is Lord God of hosts, the One “who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth” (Amos 4:13 NKJV).
In other words, He is the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator. Those ancient Israelites were chastised because they sought worldly things and not God’s ways. They should have prepared better. And guess what? We’re in the same boat. It will be a huge reckoning when we meet Him face to face.
But there’s one tiny difference between the Scripture and the words on our plaque—a comma right after the word “prepare.”
In the English language, a comma often represents a breath between sections of a sentence, a short pause in the thought. For some reason, the person who created the transfer art for this plate about two centuries ago deemed it important to add that punctuation. Maybe he or she wanted us to take a moment to think about the message and its application, or perhaps it was already in some version of the Bible available at that time.
At first glance, I would have taken the plaque’s words as a dire warning: death is imminent, and we’re too late to amend things before standing in front of God and His judgment. That little comma, though, is inspiring to me. It invites me to truly prepare, to get my heart ready to encounter the loving God.
No one knows the day or hour we will leave this life on Earth to arrive before the Lord’s throne. We really have no way to be equipped for that terrifying day when we’ll have to answer for our wickedness. He has only two directives for us—heaven or hell.
Yet, if you believe that His Son, Jesus, died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins and you’ve placed your trust in Him, you have nothing to fear. You are clothed in His righteousness, and He has redeemed your soul from myriads of sins. You can stand before your Father God—maybe even run to Him—and rejoice in the place He has given you among the citizens of heaven.
So how do you prepare? There’s no way to work for your salvation…Jesus has already accomplished it for us. Preparing in this life means serving Him in every way you possibly can, out of joyful gratitude for Jesus’ gift of life.
The artist added another verse to the plaque with this prayer of hope: “In thee O Lord do I put my trust, let me never be confounded” (a mix of versions of Psalm 33:1). What a comforting prayer for peace about God’s plans for our lives! The verse is accompanied by a drawing of an angel blowing a trumpet, a signal of God’s presence among us.
Because we are still sinners in this life, the only true preparation for meeting God will be our faith in Jesus Christ alone. Friend, prepare to meet your God by placing your complete trust in Him. Ask Jesus and His Holy Spirit to guide and direct your path. Pray to Him with confidence that He hears your prayers.
Then, when the final trumpet sounds for you, you’ll be prepared to sing, “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory!”*
Father God, Creator of heaven and earth, prepare my heart for meeting You. By the blood and atonement of Your Son, Jesus, I trust in His grace over me—to forgive me for my sins, wash me clean, and purchase a place for me at Your heavenly feast. Grant me Your favor, in His name alone, to enter into eternal life in Your timing. And prepare me, in the meantime, to rejoice in Your unimaginable gift as I praise and serve You in every way I can. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Nancy C. Williams is a Christian wife/mom with a writing career spanning more than 40 years in business and journalism. Williams is the author of the novel To Love a Falcon and the devotional book A Crocus in the Desert: Devotions, Stories, and Prayers for Women Experiencing Infertility. Her blogs are featured on Crossmap.com and AriseDaily. To follow Nancy’s posts and news, go to her home page at NancyCWilliams.com and subscribe at the bottom.
© Copyright 2025 Nancy C. Williams (text and photography). Unless otherwise noted, Scripture verses are taken from the New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. #lustreware #transferware #englishpottery #princessbride #heaven #meetingGod #redemption
*Eliza Edmunds Hewitt, 1898. https://hymnary.org/text/sing_the_wondrous_love_of_jesus_sing_his
