End Time Preparation Checklist – Know If You’re Ready For the End

Are you ready to face the dreadful end time described by Jesus and Revelation? Honestly, practically no one is yet until Elijah comes with his teaching. But you can get started now for our dystopic future and improve your chances. The NT records Jesus' and others' instructions and warnings about this. What it says you need to work on may be surprising and downright depressing, but you do want to "escape all these things and stand before" Jesus (Lk 21:36) don't you? Read on for some advance guidance...

Prepared For The Dreadful But Vague End Time?

Most Christians grasp that the coming end times will be horrible and critical to avoid through any means possible (including through, they hope, a "pretrib rapture"). Part of this period is widely recognized in Christian culture as the "Great Tribulation" or great suffering or troubles. That's an apt description of life on earth under the Antichrist's oppressive 3½ year-long dictatorship ^[1].

Unfortunately, that's not all of it. The truth is that what God is going to let happen in our lifetime is shockingly bad beyond anything we imagine in our worst nightmares. There is another roughly nine months of "trouble" beforehand not on the radar of Christians. Jesus called it "the beginning of sorrows/birth pains ^[2]" (Mt 24:8). It kicks off when the earth is rocked by a dwarf planet sent from heaven called Wormwood ^[3] and WW3 is unleashed on the world ^[2] ending quickly (in one hour, just as Putin boasted once) ^[4] with the shocking destruction of America ^[4]. Not only does Christianity not inform Christians on these additional, pretribulational cataclysms in the final seven year period ^[5], but they do not know how God plans to help his servants escape that time which even a "pretrib rapture" would come too late for.

Because the end time ^[2] will present so many threats to life, God must provide an escape or few if any of us would survive through its procession of calamities. And he will: in a single protected place that he gathers his people to ^[6].  However, getting to safety is going to be more difficult than selling your stuff and booking a flight. It will take great endurance and mental strength as Jesus warned (Mt 24:13, Lk 21:36).

Prepare How? Find and Fix Your Weaknesses

To reiterate, this has nothing to do with "prepping" ^[7], stockpiling or survival training. God has all that covered, thankfully for both Wormwood/WW3 and the Great Tribulation. ^[8] (If he didn't, few would make it since most of us are not up to that type of lifestyle.) Instead, the type of prepping we need is all in the mental and spiritual realm. As my previous article on this topic covers extensively, it's about being strong and stable enough to meet the challenges that will be against us going to safety ^[6].

Do you think you are strong and stable already? I doubt it. Nearly every Christian I've met has great weaknesses or achilles' heels that undermine their faith. It's so bad their faith frankly wavers all the time, on a day to day or even hourly basis. I get emails all the time from believers with depression, addictions, low self-esteem, anger, unforgiveness, hate, hopelessness, and lack of direction. When these things knock you out of peace with God you are vulnerable to sin and other bad choices that disconnect you from God. You stop loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself (Mt 7:12; 22:38-39). You are turned away from God and vulnerable.

If that's how you are at home living in a stable modern civilization in a supportive social network, how will you be when the end requires you to abandon your home, your friends and family, your entire known and probably comfortable way of life? You'll likely crater and fall out of connection and faith with God. This is not where you want to be when the end requires so much of you. You'll fall away. In the words of God to Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 12:5 — “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?"

...Or Else...

Jesus painted a picture of how most end time believers, consisting of mostly materialistic (Rev 3:17) lukewarm "Laodicean Christians" (Rev 3:16-17), would handle the end time events:

Matthew 24:9-10 — 9 Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. 10 At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another... 12 Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.

As I wrote previously, the world will despise believers who listen to Elijah's end time warning, calling the group in Judea crazy cultists ^[6]. That, among many other reasons I have explained, is why we find Jesus here talking about so many believers left behind without protection at the mercy of the hate of the world and the Antichrist.  They didn't find the strength to get themselves to safety. So how do they react when the world finally falls apart a little later? With the "faith and love of Jesus?" No way. They lose their love and their faith. They will feel God (or at least Christianity) has betrayed them and turn into animals.

It's going to be so hard to get to safety, this will likely happen to you as well without preparation. If you neglect working on your weak areas, it will greatly compromise your ability to maintain faith in God's goodness and persevere to receive the help we'll need to make it. As you can imagine, identifying and strengthening your weaknesses that have been with you likely since childhood takes time. That is why we need to pay attention now and start preparing early, the sooner the better. It's not just me saying it, but is in fact the prescription Jesus himself gave to the end time lukewarm Christian church:

Revelation 4:18 — I advise you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.

Yes, he said to prayerfully work on your debilitating character flaws with God's divine help (which may lead to fiery trials, eye-stinging medicine, etc.). It's unpleasant but you can do it; plus it's way less unpleasant than the end times. We already know some few will accept the challenge and qualify by doing exactly what he advised to "make yourself ready" (i.e. preparation!):

Revelation 19:7 — Let us rejoice and celebrate and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.

Revelation 22:14 — Those who wash their clothes clean are happy (who are washed by the blood of the Lamb). They will have the right to go into the city through the gates. They will have the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life.

This article is a guide to what to look at in your life so you can find your weaknesses that already undermine your faith and relationship with God so that nothing stops you from trusting and receiving God's help when you need it (including before the end)!

Read on for clues on how to find and fix your weak areas today.

"Trigger Warning"

First, if you're not already feeling anxious from me telling you really bad things are coming and the bad things lurking inside you might cause you to be left behind, I want to warn you before proceeding that it gets worse. The suggestions below get into touchy personal areas that you may already be sensitive about. To hear someone tell you that those areas as they are today can put your plans to escape the end times into jeopardy could be more than you can bear to hear at first.

Reading them can therefore put you into an emotional tailspin. You may feel like throwing yourself a pity party, like being mad at God, or even mad at me. This, again, is not just hypothetical. I have seen it many times when I get real about what the end times escape will require of us. People shut down and cut off contact with God or with us (or both) until they can stabilize and realize running away from facing the issue is only going to prolong it.

If that happens to you, take your time and come back to God about it. Also, the On the Narrow Path podcasts have been specifically named by people triggered by these truths as being encouraging and helpful for them to turn things around and come back to God and to work on the problem area. Episode #60 in particular was recorded to support those struggling with the issues in this article:

OK, with that warning out of the way, here's the checklist for end time preparation:

1. Revisit pretrib rapture (Mt 24:29-31)
2. Pray for strength to escape (Lk 21:36)
3. Notice How You Spend Time & Distractions You Allow
4. Observe What Stress Reveals In You
5. The "People Suck" Mentality
6. The "I suck" Mentality
7. The "God sucks" Mentality

Point #1: Revisit the "Pretrib Rapture"

The place to start is with your outlook on the end times. The popular, prevailing paradigm among Christians is to expect no trouble or tribulation in their life before the rapture comes. So-called "pretribbers," expect a "pre-tribulation rapture" to take them to heaven before "the end of the world as we know it" happens.

Naturally, when you believe something does not apply to you, you tend to ignore it. I have heard several Christians confess that they never even read the Book of Revelation because it's too scary. They justify skipping this part of God's Word because, if the pretrib rapture is correct, then what Revelation says doesn't apply to them as they won't be here for it. The warnings and prophecies there are for the lost who don't come to know Jesus, or so they reason.

That's why I say, if you are a pretribber, I suggest you begin your end time preparation by reconsidering this very compromising belief system. As posttribbers reason, "I'd rather believe in post-tribulation rapture, be ready for the worst and then find out I'm wrong when the rapture comes sooner, than be a pre-tribulation rapture believer who is not prepared for the worst and find out I was wrong when the rapture does not come."

That said, pragmatic reasoning, although it has its place, is not the ideal way to decide which doctrine to believe. Ideally, you would launch a systematic study into the end time prophecies to find out what all the rapture verses and related resurrection and other verses objectively say on the timing of the rapture relative to the Great Tribulation. But not everyone is capable of that; not everyone is a Bible scholar or even good at research or reading their Bible. Thankfully,  you don't have to be. You do not need to be smart to serve God or to find the truth. Praying daily about the issue for God to guide you to the truth is all you need coupled with a willingness to hear or look into whatever God puts into your life in answering that prayer. You have to do your part, but he'll make it within your capabilities to do.

If you want help starting out, I have these articles on the topic of the rapture and of course my book Know the Future lays it out comprehensively to show how the rapture only fits in one place among all the end time events when laid out together:

• Rapture Secrets ^[10]
• Rapture Requirements ^[11]
• Who Is Rev 3:10 Saying Will "Be Kept From" Tribulation? ^[12]
• Will God Allow His Bride Go Through the Tribulation? ^[13]

Point #2: Pray for Strength To Escape (Lk 21:36)

Once God leads you to see that we will indeed be here for the "beginning of sorrows" and Great Tribulation, then you are ready to make sense of the next step in preparation. In talking about the severity of the end time events, Jesus gave crucial instruction for facing it:

Luke 21:36 — But be alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.

It's an odd instruction if there really is a "pretrib rapture." You don't need strength to escape if a pretrib rapture happens to you before the end comes merely for being a Christian/accepting Christ as your savior. Yet Jesus made it sound like you have to be on your toes (stay alert/don't backslide) and seeking God's help in prayer to make you mentally strong enough to escape.

It was only recently that I came to more fully understand why he said this and not something else, like, say, "pray for faith." God's provided escape in the end times is not something that happens to you. It's something you must leave home and travel to. That's hard enough, but add to it that the place will be very, very unattractive. For an idea of it, imagine God telling you to travel to North Korea. Even then, you still won't have an inkling of the difficulty factor involved in taking hold of God's offer of protection in the end times!

For a much fuller concept of what we're up against and why Jesus said to pray for strength (not faith) be sure to see my previous article on 10 Reasons You Will Likely Reject God’s End Time Escape ^[14]

Once you have read that and come to understand the magnitude of the challenge, perhaps then you can find a way to incorporate Jesus' short recommended prayer of praying for the strength to escape into your daily devotion. It's not a magic phrase or "Prayer of Jabez" thing. By doing this prayer you are obeying God's word, demonstrating your humility in needing God's help and also stating your intention to seek his favor for that critical period coming. God can bless that in amazing and unexpected ways. You don't have to know how God will strengthen you, you just have to be humble and obedient.

Point #3 — Notice How You Spend Time & The Distractions You Allow

What would I say is the number one threat today to people successfully escaping the end times? Satan? Demons? Deception? One of the issues listed above?

I believe distraction trumps them all. Distraction is actually listed in Jesus' Parable of the Sower as one of the top three threats to spiritual growth = producing fruit ("thorns" Mt 13:7, 22). The other two are the Satanic deception ("birds" Mt 13:4, 19) along with persecution rounding the list ("rocky soil" Mt 13:5, 20).

Matthew 13:4, 7, 22 — 4 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ... 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants ... 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.

It's easy to understand how if you are occupied with the "cares of this world/worries of this life" more than with the world to come, then your choices will lead you into a life with precious little time for God's things. Your life is mainly a result of your decisions and your time is your life.

Carving out time for an invisible God and his spiritual things has always been a challenge for the physically-bound man. But no generation has been so overloaded with interruptions, input, options and choices to distract us from spiritual things. We have the internet, social media, 24 hour news cycle, smart phones, movies, Netflix, the "golden age of television," binge-watching, unlimited video games and YouTube. In naming these fixtures of 21st century life, I'm not labeling them bad, as if they were all equivalent to Internet pornography. No, the issue is that there are so many good and interesting diversions out there vying for your attention, that you can literally never even touch any of the bad stuff and still be kept away from God. In other words, your very best use of time (God) will suffer at the mercy of the merely good or even very good use of time.

For this reason, I have often stated how sorry I feel for the millennial generation that only knows a world where they are always online and always connected to the internet and their screens. I don't know how they can resist the temptations and time drains at their fingertips which seem like the default, normal life. For them, it commonly gets to the point where they feel anxious when they get disconnected, what with FOMO (fear of missing out) and the addiction factor of the dopamine hits they are used to receiving when playing video games or even when using Facebook as insiders have admitted they designed it to do.

I think you get my point by now that if you want to have any chance of making it in the end times, you need to start observing how you spend your time and how much of it is left over or reserved for God and his things. If you don't do this, it's all too easy to end up with little or nothing left for God. Simply put, if you fill up all your time with the good things of this modern online world, you cannot expect to make progress on your spirituality that you need to prepare for the end times. Years can go by without any spiritual growth at all.

To fix what you are seeing, you have to be willing for God to downsize your life, reduce your responsibilities and even the number of people in your life. It may be you need to give up coaching that team, or give up that hobby. Less is more. Going slow is fast for spiritual development.

If you find yourself unable to give up anything of significance, don't be discouraged. You just need God's help in this area, just like I've said with every area on this checklist. God lives outside time and can even warp time in your life, providing more. He can help you lose interest in the worldly things and get more excited about his things. I find that's what God does for me, he leads me by getting me interested or excited about his things, better things. He can do the same for you; if you just try and don't stop trying even when it looks hopeless.

Point #4 — Observe What Stress Reveals In You

A wise saying I have kept in mind for many years goes:

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The truth of this saying applies also to simpler situations, like everyday stress or other states of compromised physical or mental capacity. To help illuminate this, I frequently teach people who I counsel the acronym "HALT." That stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired; all common states of heightened susceptibility to relapse to an addiction or other bad behavior. The point is to teach people to be aware that when you are in one of these compromised states, you are more likely to make a bad decision or have a bad reaction. Since we as believers are concerned about staying in faith and obedience to God (chiefly meaning to be loving to our neighbor - Mt 7:12), it's helpful to train ourselves to watch for these times so we can take appropriate compensating actions. That could include praying for extra help, changing your plans or even retreating from people and taking care of yourself with "me time." (When I realized years ago that I became a real short-tempered jerk when I don't get enough sleep, I formed the habit of telling God when I'm sleep-deprived to help me so I don't mistreat anyone around me.)

That's obviously a wise and thoughtful approach to help prevent that worst version of yourself from manifesting. However, it's of course not full-proof. You will still act out and have regretful episodes. That's life. That may sound like a problem, but it's not. These out-of-control moments provide us with some of the most useful insights on where we need to focus on with God's help to grow and become more like faith and love.

The challenge when we observe our unadulterated raw self under stress is to not reject ourselves. To see how ugly we really are can easily lead us to wallow in guilt, shame, depression, victim-hood thinking, apathy or hopelessness. Or, later, when you make your initial attempts at "fixing" the ugliness which fail, it can be even more depressing. You may feel powerless and hopeless. It's normal to fail at first on your own strength and wisdom until you learn to incorporate God into the process better.

It will be tempting along the way to fall back into apathy or to justify these warts as common to all men and impossible to fully get rid of. "So why bother?" Well, take it from me, it makes a big difference. When the end comes, there will be a vast gulf between the apathetic version of yourself justifying your flaws and the diligent version of yourself who focuses on your issues with God's help. There is an intangible X-factor where God blesses you for working on these hard ugly areas and not giving up.

Just when you think it's hopeless and nothing is working, you will get a breakthrough that has God's fingerprints all over it. It's a thrill I've experienced personally many times since I started walking purposely on this narrow path that Jesus blazed. Not to mention the incredible blessings that God sends to encourage you for doing such scary and hard work on yourself.

Point #5: The "People Suck” Mentality

Another common way that we are set up today to be vulnerable in the end times is in our habitual negative thoughts about people. I call it the “people suck” mentality after the common sentiment you have no doubt heard that “life sucks” or “life sucks, and then you die.”

Even when we live in easy, happy times like today, we can all relate to other people “making us mad/unhappy” or causing us to lose our peace or cool. We may be aware to some degree (generally not enough) that Jesus taught his disciples to love (Mt 7:12) and forgive everyone (Mt 6:12, 14). However, since practicing unconditional love is not easy in the slightest, we still tend to largely be guilty of habitual unforgiveness, grudges, even treating people badly and retaliating against them.

I emphasize the word "habitual" above because this issue is not about perfection or never making a mistake, but about what we allow ourselves or give ourselves permission to do regularly or systematically because of our values.

We manage to do awful things by the neat trick of self-justification. It's in everyone's toolbox. Like my dad used to say, “everyone thinks they are a nice guy.” So true, but why? Because no matter whatever rotten thing we do, we feel it is justified for what the other person did first. We tell ourselves (or anyone who will listen) that:

• “They started it.”
• “They were asking for it.”
• “They're sinners/God's enemies/evil.”
• “Someone has to teach them.”
• “This is tough love.”

At such times we conveniently forget instructions of Jesus such as:

• “Love your enemies” (Mt 5:43-45).
• “Forgive or you will not be forgiven by God” (Mt 18:21, 35)
• Don't retaliate, but act opposite to how you feel (Mt 5:38-42).
• And much more ^[15].

Cursing Yourself

When we disobey God's law of love that Jesus taught, it immediately disconnects us from God. God cannot be a part of sin or near it; so you're on our own. Further, according to his law of sowing and reaping, if we break his law and sin, we cut off his blessings and attract his curses like the ancient Israelites did when they disobeyed and complained. Whether you are saved or not, God has deemed that actions have consequences so that we may learn obedience (Ro 8:29) just like even our eldest brother did (Heb 5:7-9).

How far does your hate for people go? Do you dislike people in general, only certain groups or categories of people or only specific people who you have met? Some people, known as misanthropes, dislike humanity in general. You find many among the animal-loving community where they can displace their dislike for people with a love and care for animals and their rescue.

Most of us commonly limit our dislike to specific groups “who sin differently than we do” as one Christian writer aptly put it. Conservatives dislike liberals who they condemn and ridicule on their Facebook pages. Christians target not only liberals (“who are destroying our Christian nation/the biblical definition of family and marriage”), but also Muslims (“they are God's enemies!”) and homosexuals (“they are sinners who are cursing our nation ^[16]”). You can justify it all you want, but we are still to love our neighbor as ourselves, even our enemies and God's enemies because that is what he says and does himself (Mt 5:45).

Lastly, some of us are able to manage our hatred of our neighbor down to individuals we simply “can't stand.” We are either passive aggressive or outright retaliatory towards them “because they deserve it/someone has to teach them.” That rude person in line or the driver who cut you off (“road rage” is hate not love) "is not what Jesus was talking about when he said to love." Or the person on the aisle seat who does not respond when you repeatedly ask them to stand up to let you into your window seat, causing you to snap into a racial tirade as was making the news when I was composing this article:

That video shows a real “people suck and I'm going to make sure they know it” moment. I think many of us can relate to either similar experiences or feeling like doing what that man did, but being afraid to. Afterwards, we tend to diminish such melt-downs as “one-offs” or “I probably lost my temper a bit” as he was quoted as saying in interviews after (“a bit?”). He also denied being racist, “by any means.” Yet his breakdown in frustration caused insults about a person's race to come out of his mouth. This means they were in his heart all along (Mt 12:34). As mentioned above, moments of stress reveal things about ourselves that we may have been blocking out and missing all along. They may reveal racism and other variations of “people suck” including murderous hatred of our fellow man.

When this happens and reveals black spots on our heart, do we dismiss them or are we convicted to work on them (even if we don't know how)?

End Time Angle

Since the theme of this article is the end times and what there is inside of you that may cause you to stumble on your escape to God's safety and not make it, let's discuss now how your hatred of others can cause you to miss out in the end times and be in the dreaded state of being “left behind” when the Book of Revelation unfolds.

In order to escape the end times, we're going to be tested with the hurtful and hateful words and actions of “sucky” people. The minute people find out we plan to listen to Elijah ^[17] and escape to Judea ^[6] (which they will consider a cult ^[14]) we will be thought much less of. At first they will patronize us and try to talk us out of it. When that doesn't work, they will call us stupid or brain-washed. Our loved ones will accuse us of abandoning them; guilt-trip city, manipulation.

My point is, if you are struggling now with bad feelings about people in your life or in the world, you'll have even more reason to fume on the “people suck” sentiment in the end times. If you are weak in this area, it can easily derail you from God and his blessing and, with it, his help. We all need his divine help and strengthening in the end time because of how hard it will be to make it to his safe place ^[6]. If you continue to “give yourself a pass” for your unchecked feelings about your fellow man, then you are not going to be in a good position to pass the test in the end times.

Solution Steps

If the above warning convicts you, then what do you do? Is there any hope for you if you've been struggling with hatred or acting out against people for years?

Yes! With God all things are possible (Mt 19:26). Here's the steps:

1. Admit you have a problem.
2. Admit the problem is beyond your control or ability to resolve. (This part is scary if you are not a believer with faith in Step 4.)
3. Reject guilt, fear, shame and accept your flawed self as how God made you (just as he does).
4. Pray to God to help, who is willing and pleased with you (Lk 15:7, 10).
5. Monitor yourself and when you catch yourself with these thoughts again, go back to step 1.

There are many testimonies of people hitting bottom and searching for help and finding it to finally overcome hard things. People in twelve-step programs do this regularly without real faith in the God of the Bible. If they can do it through faith and hope, so can we with the actual help of the almighty God.

Quick progress can come through divine insights that lead to breakthroughs to help us understand our hatred for people, liberals, conservatives, blacks, whites, Muslims, Christians, women, men, the person next door, father-figures, mother-figures, and so on. We may have had a trauma caused by someone in that people group, race, sex or role that we have repressed. If we are willing to keep looking at that ugly hatred to remind us to seek change with God in that area, amazing things can happen. We become more like love, more like Jesus. That's the yardstick, right?—or our faith is worthless (James 1:26).

Point #6: The “I Suck” Mentality

A long-time Christian may have a decent handle on not “hating their neighbor.” They know, of all things, it's wrong and they have begun to monitor their behavior and even their hateful thoughts. Yet they may not realize that any hatred they have for themselves is also a violation of God's law and something else to monitor and modify.

In fact, I see and hear self-hatred much more commonly among Christians than overt hatred for others. After getting to know a Christian, I am no longer surprised to hear evidence that they do not love themselves or are highly self-critical. I think it's safe to say everyone has had some form of self-loathing thoughts:

• “I hate myself!”
• “I am so stupid!”
• “What's wrong with me?
• “No one will ever love me.”
• “Why can't I stop [smoking/doing drugs/Facebook/gaming/other addictive behavior]? It's stupid.”

We may only think or say such things when angry at ourselves in a time of failure or disappointment. Yet even this is a temporary rejection of what God has made. It's not seeing ourselves as God sees us: his child who learns through normal, unavoidable failures and mistakes.

It gets worse, though, as many Christians are depressed and down on themselves. They literally hate themselves. Some Christians are taught that thinking of yourself as “a worthless sinner” is the right self-image to hold. Any form of loving yourself is wrong or at least dangerous.

As a child of God made by God, this is against what he has commanded:

Mark 12:30-31 — 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

We are indeed assumed to have a basic, healthy love of ourselves. God made us wonderfully and well. To hate on that means God did a terrible job.

For this subject, I don't really have to say quite as much as the previous one. People who hate themselves know they do and believe they have justification for it. They don't feel normal or like other people. They may be naturally critical (like me), traumatized as a child, addicted to something that they cannot overcome making them feel powerless or something else. Many things can lead people to hate or reject themselves. You know it when you do it whether you talk about it to anyone else or not. Enough said.

End Time Angle

I hate to put any further pressure on self-loathing people since they tend to be sensitive and easily triggered. But I must warn you: if you do not figure out your self-hatred/rejection, you are in a compromised condition for the end times compared to the average person.

If you hate yourself and think you're a “second class citizen” in God's eyes today in good times, then when all of us really need God's help to escape, it will be especially hard for you to believe for it and persist until you get it. Will you have the faith or the strength to believe God would help an addicted, rejected, pathetic, sorry nobody who nobody loves? That's a hard ask.

Solution Steps

If you are convicted that you don't love yourself and need to change, then the blueprint for fixing this is really no different than what I prescribed above for people whose hatred is directed outward instead of inward. Despite all your failures to accept and love yourself in the past, remember that with God all things are possible (Mt 19:26).

1. Admit you have a problem.
2. Admit the problem is beyond your control or ability to resolve.
3. Reject guilt, fear, shame about your hatred for yourself and realize it's normal even among Christians to be unfairly self-critical to some degree.
4. Pray to God to help, who is willing and pleased with you (Lk 15:7, 10).
5. Monitor yourself and when you catch yourself with these thoughts again, go back to step 1.

My “I Suck” Testimony

I used to not like myself as a child and young man. I was highly critical by nature so with my skinny physique and inability to gain weight no matter what I did, I decided I was a reject and hated my body and myself. I was shy, quiet and introverted and thought I said stupid things. I never dated a girl throughout high school because of the resulting low self esteem and self-consciousness (despite many girls showing “buying signals,” lol). Finally, in my twenties, I gained perspective that everyone has body issues and other reasons they feel self-conscious; I was not the only one or some broken human. I began to come out of my shell and dated in the break I took between high school and college. In college, I bloomed and dated “wildly.” The key was to realize I was not a freak who was unlovable, but a normal flawed person who still was loved by God and lovable even by many (also flawed) humans, too. (Not all humans, of course, nobody is. Yet, that's not a requirement anyway and neither is perfection!)

Since I was never molested or traumatized by others, I admit my “I suck” mentality was easier to overcome than it is for others who may have been. But I still had addictions and deep flaws that caused me to reject myself which I later had to learn to come to terms with and accept. I had to learn to see myself as God did: an individual created with strengths and weaknesses, flaws and good qualities that he understood and loved just as I was, even though I stumbled in the same "stupid mistakes" over and over. When I saw in the Bible that "the prayers of the saints are fine incense to God" I realized that's all saints including the flawed, ugly, addicted, struggling saints like me and you (Rev 5:8). That was a turning point for me, my prayer life and my walk with God.

Point #7: The “God Sucks” Mentality

This was the very first of the three “suck” ditches that I recognized among Christians. Unfortunately, it took me quite some time to see it. After talking with literally tens of thousands of Christians seeking my help on mostly prophecy topics from 1998-2013, I finally noticed in 2013 how often Christians would complain or otherwise express doubts about God. As a person with a gift of faith in God's goodness since childhood, I could not relate and was therefore almost completely blind to this pattern. Like most Christians, I never would have guessed how often believers don't like, love, understand, or trust in God who they profess allegiance to! (I was so awestruck when I perceived this reality that I knew the next book I wrote would have to be on exposing this problem and its solutions.)

Upon hearing all this, you may think, “You're confused, Tim. It's only atheists who don't like God and who think and outright say 'your God sucks.'” However, that overlooks that any complaining or pointed questioning about God or his choices is, in effect, stating the same thing indirectly. (I'm not talking about a sincere, innocent, curious question seeking understanding of God's ways.) I'm talking about questions stated rhetorically in frustration or as accusations.

It's easy to miss this Christian "God sucks" sentiment since most complaints do come in the form of questions. Even statements of complaint that do not mention God explicitly are problematic when we let them run wild. Since God is responsible for everything, when we say we suck or people suck, as above, we are saying "God sucks," too, who is their Creator.

Further, even our questions to God tend to implicate God. Here's some examples of how people who are not happy with God express it indirectly so that they are safe from judgment from fellow Christians and hopefully from God himself:

• “This sucks! [fill in the blank complaint about life]”
• “I can't understand why God lets all this evil/suffering continue...”
• “If only... I wish... Why can't...?”
• “Why won't God give me a job/spouse/health after all these years and prayers?”
• “Why doesn't God answer my prayers for healing/help/ when I pray all the time to him?”
• “Why did God let my child/children die?”
• “Why didn't God heal that person?”
• “Why does God let Satan do evil?”
• “Why did God make a tree knowing they would eat from it?”
• “If only Adam did not choose the tree of knowledge!”

It's hard to hear this, but basically, all accusatory questions about God's handling of the world and any complaints about life that we as believers even think are an accusation against God. At those moments we sound like the atheists right before they decide such a terrible God must not exist and they do not believe in him.

Yes, this is a very hard saying, one that implicates us all! It's a high standard, even when you remember that it's not about perfection or never complaining, but about what you justify and give yourself a pass on habitually. Also, again, I'm not talking about innocent curious questions but rather accusatory questions and complaints, hiding behind anger, victimhood, depression, bitterness, impatience, entitlement, etc.

Can you see and admit that you as a Christian are not happy with God? That you don't like how hard he makes life and how little he helps us? How even for those of us who pray diligently he seems to mostly ignore us?

That's the first step and a big one if you can get there. In my experience it's universal. If you think you don't do this, I say pray on it for God to show you. What's the harm?

My Real “God Sucks” Testimony

Even I have been guilty of thinking and saying God sucks. In my twenties I had ulcerative colitis which has no cure. I had heard of people receiving divine healing for this, so I prayed about it. Three times over a few years God gave me divine healing and relief from it. It was an elation each time to know God had touched my body in response to the prayer of faith (James 5:15)!

Yet, inevitably, each time, the healing proved short-lived as the symptoms soon returned. At that point, I had never heard of a “partial-healing” from God (now I know differently – Mk 8:24). What was the deal? Why did he give me a substandard “second best” healing? I was really angry: “God, either heal me or or don't. Don't tease me with a partial healing!”

Years later, I fervently prayed at a time when I was at my bottom and fed up struggling with this condition. God responded within 24 hours by leading me to rare wisdom that solved my condition for good very quickly ^[18]. God was good.

However, I had judged him as bad in my youthful impatience, saying “God sucks” in my heart repeatedly for a season, despite my so-called faith. It was an important insight that I needed to relate to other Christians who may not be so gifted in seeing God's goodness at all times.

End Time Angle

If you don't like how God is running or doing things in these relative prosperous and good times, how much are you going to like God's hard end time plan for the saints? This is a plan that requires you to say goodbye to your home, your nation, and most likely all your family and friends who will, by the way, think you're crazy and “joining a suicide cult in the desert.” ^[14] With so few survivors expected in God's end time safe place because of the more than one dozen obstacles in the way of getting there, it's hard not to wonder if God could not find a better way. Why couldn't he make it a little easier for our loved ones to be able to see the truth and make it with us?

Yes, God's plan is going to be hard and really stink to us when we see our friends and family one by one reject it and us with it. How will we handle that then? How are we handling his running of the country or world or our life now?

Solution

Can you see and admit that you as a Christian are not happy with God? That you don't like how hard he makes life and how little he helps you? Let's face it, even with those of us who pray diligently, he seems to almost completely ignore and not answer. That challenges us all.

If you are convicted that you do have doubts of God's goodness (Heb 11:6=Mt 19:17), then the blueprint for fixing this is the same as what I prescribed above for the other two ditches. Despite all your failures to stop complaining about life or accusing God of impropriety in the past, remember that with God all things are possible (Mt 19:26).

1. Admit you have a problem.
2. Admit the problem is beyond your control or ability to resolve.
3. Reject guilt, fear, shame and accept that all God's children really don't prefer how he's running the world or doing things. That's just honest.
4. Pray to God to help, who is willing and pleased with you (Lk 15:7, 10).
5. Monitor yourself and when you catch yourself with these thoughts again, go back to step 1.

Conclusion: "Repent."

If you reflect on the checklist of points raised above, you may notice a theme among those after the first two. While the first two are tied directly to end time thinking and planning, the other five are more universal. They would all fit into the category of repentance, which is an unwieldy Biblical term for turning towards God.

In other words, repentance is nothing more than personal development. The difference from other personal development systems is that repentance is aligned with God's values and guided by the Holy Spirit. The target is to become like Jesus, a man who had full faith in God and loved those around him.

Frankly, this form of personal development is what we should have been doing all along since becoming a believer/professed "follower of Jesus Christ." Again here are the verses I quoted above:

Revelation 19:7 — Let us rejoice and celebrate and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.

Revelation 22:14 — Those who wash their clothes clean are happy (who are washed by the blood of the Lamb). They will have the right to go into the city through the gates. They will have the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life.

Have you been making yourself ready and cleaning your garments? I did not for most of my life. There are probably two reasons you have not, which are the same reasons I did not, either:

1. Unfortunately, if you're like me and any Christian I've ever met, you've never been trained in personal development at church or told you can and should focus on becoming like Jesus. You were likely told Jesus did it all for us, kept the law, lived a perfect life as only he could do, so we can have his righteousness. The instruction "to walk as he walked" is ignored (1Jn 2:5-6).
2. Even if you knew really well how to repent, as Jesus said, it's easy and normal to get distracted by the physical world, as covered above.

This article addresses both these issues. In a brief way, the checklist above guides you through the repentance process by showing you where to look to find where your challenge/growth areas are and how to proceed with them (with hope and God). Likewise, the insights on the end time events coming (and coming perhaps as soon as 2026) will give you a sense of urgency that will help you change your priorities and push out the distractions. Of course, I recommend no one trust me on my 2026 timing idea but to take it to your prayer closet for your own confirmation from God like he did for me. (Trust no man and accept no substitutes for hearing from God yourself.)

When you get that confirmation about time being short, you will be empowered to finally do what you know you should have been doing already. You can follow this guide and redirect how you spend your time to address what you find. You can change what you focus on and begin to make positive God-directed improvements to your thoughts, attitudes and actions that you may have been ignoring out of hopelessness or cluelessness up until now.

If you wish for further support in this walk on the narrow path, consider joining the support team and accessing the special Support Team Content ^[19] where we specifically focus on how to stay connected to God and grow in faith and love. In doing so you will help support more free content like this and the coming planned free Workbook/"Missing Manual." ^[20]