Watching and Waiting

I’ve been a pastor for more than forty years now. When I first started out, I preached on the soon return of Jesus. I even designed a bumper sticker with my cartoon character Ben Born Again, with a caption that read, “Jesus is coming!” We printed it. And then we reprinted it.

I don’t regret doing any of that. Just because it was forty years ago doesn’t mean that I was wrong. We’re now forty years closer to the return of Christ than we were back then. And I’m still excited about it. I think we should live every day as though it were the day that Jesus Christ is coming back because one day it will be the day. In fact, a lot of people ought to be glad that God didn’t answer our prayers in 1970, because they weren’t Christians back then.

The Bible tells us, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:9 NLT).

When you believe that Jesus could come back at any moment, it has a spiritually purifying effect on you. We are told in 1 John, “And all who have this eager expectation [the expectation of the Lord’s soon return] will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure” (3:3 NLT).

So how are we to live as we await His return? We are to live godly, uncompromising lives for His glory. We should live every day as though it were our last day because it could be. What is your attitude toward the Lord’s return? The person who is right with God will say, as the apostle John did, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”