Wait, Watch, Pray!
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! 2 Peter 3:9-12
The Christian life is very much like the season of Advent, a time of waiting. Consistently, the Scriptures teach us that we are to watch, wait and pray for the coming of the Lord. We do not know when He will come again, so we wait. And we wait.
In his beloved children’s book, Oh the Places You’ll Go!, Dr. Seuss describes the waiting place, “Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plan to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go of the phone to ring, or the now or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.” This is how we feel at times. The widow, whose family is all gone, waits. The young college graduate, who wonders what direction his life will take, waits. The woman, who calls to schedule the biopsy, waits.
We are waiting for the new heavens and the new earth, the home of righteousness. We are waiting for God to fulfill His promises by Christ’s second advent. The Lord is not slow in keeping those promises. The One who has called us is faithful and will keep His Word. So we wait. But we wait in faith and in hope. We wait certain that God will not abandon us.
Dear friends, we do not stay in the waiting place, doing nothing except sitting idly by while we wait. Rather we live and serve in our appointed callings as we wait, as we watch, as we pray. We do not know when Christ will return, but we continue to serve God where He has placed us until the day of His return. So we live and serve and watch and wait and pray until Jesus comes again in glory. Waiting is not a call to inaction, but a call to vigilance and prayer. Therefore, all those who await His appearance pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
Prayer – Almighty God, Judge and King, Your prophets prepared Your way by calling sinners to repentance. Come, Lord Jesus, with Your grace and help us all our days to proclaim Your salvation; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Fraternally in Christ,
President Lee Hagan