Watch and Work

“For the Lord Himself will descend

from heaven with a shout, with the

voice of an archangel, and with the

trumpet of God. And the dead in

Christ shall rise first. Then we who

are alive and remain shall be caught

up together with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air. And thus

we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore comfort one another

with these words.”

     1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (NKJV)

The older I get, the more I think about heaven and that’s understandable.  But the return of Christ should be on the minds of all believers, young and old alike!  It’s so exciting to think about when the Lord will descend from heaven and we will be caught up with Him and never leave!

We’re told to comfort one another with these truths, and that’s what one dear sister and I do after church almost every Sunday. For example, she’ll say, when the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there – and I’ll smile and say me too! Or I’ll say, we need to keep looking up, it could be any day now — and she’ll smile and say amen!

Remembering the promise of Christ’s return is encouraging not only on good days but especially on days that are a struggle.  When you can hardly bear to read the headlines in the news anymore, when you see the moral decline in our society getting worse, when you're weary of all the sin and pain in this world ---that’s when it’s truly a comfort to think about the Lord coming for us.

We should be waiting with expectation for Christ to come again, but that doesn’t mean we check out and just sit around until His return. No, this is a time to be busy serving the Lord and sharing His good news to a lost world.  Because we don’t want to be ashamed when He comes; we want to be found busy doing His work. 

So watch for Him and work while there is still time.  Come Lord Jesus, come!