Jesus is Coming

Luke 12:40

“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

I don’t know about you, but when I read these words, an emotional reaction starts taking over my body. I get overwhelmed with this feeling of uneasiness while also being comforted all at the same time. It’s a rather strange feeling and I don’t allow myself to sit in it for too long because of how uncomfortable it makes me. So, instead of sitting with these words and the feelings they stir up within me, I instead flee. But why? Why do these words cause such a reaction within me?

For starters it’s hard to fathom Jesus’ return. We as humans have a hard time processing some things about Jesus’ promises, especially the promise of eternity. I have wrestled with why this is the case, but when it comes to Jesus some things are simply too good to fathom. Think about that for a second. Jesus made us, meaning he created our brains and our thought process. So, he could have created us to understand everything about him, but we are unable to. We are left to wonder and imagine, but never being able to fully comprehend just how wonderful eternity in heaven will be… how cool is our God!!

Another aspect of why this scripture sends me running, is because of its brutal honesty. “You must be ready.” God is telling us we must be ready; we must be on guard for our savior is coming!! Praise the Lord, right? This is the time we have all been waiting for. We have lived our lives waiting for this moment. The moment Jesus will come down and we will be taken from this world to spend eternity with him. This is the moment we have been living for…

But have we? Are we living our lives on guard for the return of Jesus? God is basically telling us “Whether or not you are ready, he is coming.” For some reason when I think of Jesus’ return, I think of a wedding. (Maybe because Jesus is referred to as the bridegroom waiting for his bride, or maybe because in a wedding you spend so much time prepping and planning for what is said to be known as the best day of your life.) While it will be the best day of our lives, the difference here is that there is no time for planning. God doesn’t say “you must start your planning for this is the date Jesus is coming.” No, instead he is simply saying you MUST be ready. You MUST always be ready. For you never know when he is coming.

I have been struggling with the thought of just how broken our world is. As I brought this to the Lord I was reminded of Jesus. The words “Jesus is coming” were on repeat in my head. I believe the Lord was trying to tell me “Don’t worry about the world, Jesus is coming to save.” While I was comforted that evil and brokenness would be no more, I began to realize that this went deeper than that. As I reflected on the thought of Jesus coming the question “Are you living your life like Jesus is coming?” instantly came rushing in. This question is a hard one, and if you’re anything like me your mind instantly went to all the ways in which you have been failing.

Upon reflection I realized the ways in which I have been living reflected that of this world. Unlike the scripture tells us to do in Matthew 6:25-34, I have spent too much time worrying about tomorrow, I have spent too much time worrying about what I will wear, and I spend too much time worrying about what I will eat. I spend too much time trying to meet the desires of this world and not enough time meeting the desires of my maker. But I can hear my God telling me there’s another way. I can hear him saying “Daughter it’s not too late. Come. And bring them with you.”

This world and the things of it are temporary. They will stay in this world. We weren’t created to be temporary (praise the Lord), we were created with a purpose. We were created to spend eternity with our Father in heaven, worshipping, and singing praises of his beautiful name. What a wonderful gift. Are we living our lives today with that thought?

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23

Jesus is coming. Are you ready?

Do you know him?

He is calling you home. He is calling you to surrender your life to him. Now is the time. He wants to spend forever with you, his child. He will not stop chasing after you but at some point, you have to choose him back. He is coming and we must make the choice to follow him into eternity before it’s too late.

Live this earthly life that you have been given for the one set before you in eternity. Live your life knowing Jesus is coming. Fix your eyes on the things that matter, the only one who matters.

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” – Revelation 22:20

Additional note:

What does it look like for you to live your life knowing Jesus is coming? What is God calling you to do today?

I challenge you to not flee from conversations or thoughts of Jesus’ return. Maybe the reason we have such a hard time with talking about it is because we don’t do it enough. It instills fear within us and makes us uncomfortable, and we as humans don’t like being uncomfortable. While we are to fear the Lord, we aren’t supposed to fear eternity. It’s the most wonderful gift we have been given, let’s start celebrating it as it is such. I pray that these hard conversations would stir up within your heart, as well as others, that the time is now. I pray the Lord would use these hard conversations as a way to bring more people to him. The only thing we have to fear is the Lord himself, “Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.” – 1 Samuel 12:24