Good Monday morning! Lord Jesus. I welcome You here in my heart and every moment of my day -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done” (Revelation 22:12).
One day soon, You’ll come again. One day soon, You’ll set things right again. And at the same time, as we yearn for Your coming, we also can’t help but wonder just what You mean by “soon.” It seems it’s been over 2,000 years since You spoke those words to the Apostle John and through John to us.
The Apostle Peter wrestled with the same question. And it seems You gave him this revelation, which he recorded by Your Holy Spirit in the Word of God, to help guide our hearts as we ponder Your sense of timing. He wrote to Your disciples in that first generation of the promise of Your coming, and continues to speak to Your disciples in every generation who are longing for Your coming:
“This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity!” (2 Peter 3:1-18).
That’s the key -- “be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace.... Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Every generation of Your disciples has that same sense of urgency in their spirit -- that You are coming “soon.” Your sense of days and our sense of days are not the same. Neither is our sense of “soon” and the timing of “the day of the Lord.”
But every day is “the day of the Lord” between today and the day You come again. Every day is the day to be growing in grace, growing in our knowledge of You, growing in the surrender of our heart and sanctification of our souls, seeking to live out each day forgiven and free, with Your peace in our hearts, as we pray for and even hasten the coming of the day of God.
So give me grace, Lord, to be found faithful in You -- as best as I can and all by Your grace. Come soon, Lord Jesus! “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17) In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may keep growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to be found faithful in Him by His Holy Spirit at work with you until the day of His coming, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I would love for you to please share your reflections with myself or others using the comment box below.
My wife Nancy and I are in a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in my life and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You Thank You!
