How can I be ready for the return of Christ?

Scripture calls believers to watch and pray, because no one knows the day or hour the Lord will come. Jesus describes the one who is ready as "a faithful and wise servant" whom the Lord finds doing his work when He returns, giving meat in due season to the household of faith. This means readiness is not passive waiting but active faithfulness in whatever the Lord has set before you to do, right up until He appears.

Readiness is tied directly to holiness and the walk in the Spirit. Before the gathering together of the saints takes place, there will be a falling away in the Body, and only those who have believed and embraced holiness, who walk in the Spirit and do not mind the things of the flesh, will be prepared to meet Him. This is why Romans teaches that those who are in Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, and why the call goes out to present the body as a living sacrifice rather than making provision for the flesh. Striving to enter in at the strait gate is not something to take lightly, since many will seek to enter and will not be able.

Discernment of the times is also part of being ready. Just as people can read the sky to predict the weather, believers are expected to discern the signs of the times: wars, rumors of wars, pestilences, famines and earthquakes are not to be ignored or explained away. Recognizing that the falling away and the revealing of the man of sin come before that day helps the Church avoid being shaken in mind or troubled, and it moves believers into a state of urgency rather than apathy. Submitting to sound doctrine and to the unity of the faith, rather than being tossed about by every wind of teaching, keeps the household of God from being caught unprepared.

Finally, readiness includes understanding that the Church will be present, empowered by the Holy Ghost, through the events leading up to the great and notable Day of the Lord. This is not meant to frighten believers but to prepare them, so that when the sign of the Son of man appears in the clouds with power and great glory, and every eye sees Him, the Church will be found watching, holy, and gathered with the elect from the four winds, not as the defeated but as those overcoming through the Spirit that lives within them.