Recently a friend of mine and I were discussing Jesus’ return. We discussed how every generation has preached it starting with the early church. They thought Jesus was going to return in their lifetime. They sold all they had and pooled their money together so they could get the message of Jesus out to as many people as possible quickly. Here we are around 2,000 years later and we are still waiting. The difference now is there is no urgency among believers about His return. Believers have very little motivation in them to share their faith.
We know Jesus will return because He told us He would in John 14. In verses 2-3 He said, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. (NLT)” He made a promises to return and He will fulfill it. We don’t know when everything will be ready on His end, so we have to be ready on our end.
He told the parable of the ten virgins waiting on the groom. When the groom didn’t show up quickly, it became apparent that not everyone would be ready. Five had enough oil in their lamps and five didn’t. Five were in it for the long haul. They had reserves of oil to keep their lamps burning. What group do you and I belong in? Have we given up on His return? Have we run out of oil? It was late in the night when he returned. It was past the time they thought He would. We are seeing that now as people run out of the oil of urgency for His return.
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 