Watch


Mark 13:26 (NLT) Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory.

 Mark 13:33 (NLT) And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert!

Mark 13:35–37 (NLT) You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the master of the household will return—in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak. 36 Don’t let him find you sleeping when he arrives without warning. 37 I say to you what I say to everyone: Watch for him!”

Watch.

For all the speculation around Matthew 24 and here in Mark 13, there is one essential truth Jesus IS DEFINITELY saying: "WATCH for HIS RETURN."

Someone onces said, "Live like Jesus died yesterday, rose today and is coming back tomorrow."  That's exceptional advice.

We worry about our future, our plans, our dreams.  God has the future in His hands.  We get nervous about what "may happen" to us.  We have forgotten the return of the Lord.  I know for myself, it's easy to get caught up in here and now.  But the people Jesus is looking to find are people waiting anxiously for HIM to return in power and glory.  

I was reading today about the Early Church martyrs.  They happily were tortured and killed looking forward to the eternal city ahead.  They were indeed the people of whom "the world was not worthy."  And one of the phrases that stuck out was what the writer of the "Martyrdom of Polycarp" wrote:

They "reached such a pitch of bravery that none of them uttered a cry or a groan (during whippings), thus showing to us all that at that hour the martyrs of Christ being tortured were absent from the flesh, or rather that the Lord was standing by and conversing with them."

You know what they had that we just don't?  An expectancy that Jesus was coming again tomorrow.  That's why being thrown to the lions was sweet reward.  That's why the fire of death was a doorway to eternal joy in the presence of Jesus.  I long for that in my heart once again.  I pray that my life will reflect better that Jesus is just around the corner.  

Some of us stray from this truth because of the over-emphasis on the part of some Christians to wrongly misinterpret so many events in history.  Jesus didn't tell us to look for signs, Jesus told us to look for HIM... to keep our eyes on Him and speed HIS return.  

Come Lord Jesus!

PRAYER:
Father, this is my prayer.  Not just that Jesus comes, but that I live like Jesus is coming tomorrow.  I ask you for insight into this, for a depth of conviction that changes the way I see the world.  I know this truth is central to your Word, forgive me for neglecting it so much.  In Jesus' Name.

AMEN!

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