Are you threatened or are you hopeful when I say the words, “Jesus is coming back?” Let's be honest. Sometimes it depends upon the messenger, but how should we receive these words?
What's one of the things you enjoy most? Biking? Hiking? Visiting good friends or family during the holiday season? Travelling? Watching the Stanley Cup, Superbowl or even the Ashes? One thing I've noticed is anticipation can be as exhilarating as the event itself.
We have a tendency to live with a different demeanour when we're expectant. There's a quickening in our step, we more readily overlook minor inconveniences, we communicate with a more positive tone. Why? Anticipation. There's something wonderful just around the corner.
I think this is the spirit of hope that is unique to the child of God, anticipation of what is to come. Our hope in Christ's return is not a sense of “wouldn't it be great if…”, but rather “let's live knowing the certainty of His return.” We live with a greater resolve. After all the word defeat has been struck from our vocabulary. Chuck Swindoll, in one of his messages on 1 Peter, expresses our hope this way: “Hope is not a sedative, it is a shot of adrenalin, a blood transfusion. Like an anchor our hope in Christ stabilizes us in the storms of life, but unlike an anchor it does not hold us back.”
So how do you live in anticipation of Jesus' return? Does this hope energize you? Are you living in the here and now expectant of what is to come? Does it show? Do others see the evidence of a supernatural hope in the way you live? Are you able to rise above the waves of a storm knowing the certainty of your tomorrow?
Followers of Christ are to stand out as being different. Though we face the same challenges of living in a lost world, we have the steadfast hope that He is in ultimate control, sees the beginning and the end, and knows the day of His return. And we will be the great beneficiaries.
“Therefore, prepare you minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on grace to be given you when Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:13 NIV
Just a thought…
