Watch

Matthew 24:36-51

Jesus said, "Watch therefore, for you do not know what day your Lord is coming."

That is what is wrong with many of us today. We have quit watching. Rather than living on tip-toe in an atmosphere of expectancy we are drowning in pessimism and despair. Even many devout Christians are prone to operate from fear rather than faith. That is why many churches are faltering today. They are afraid. They have no faith.

How differently we are from those earlier followers of our Lord. It was far more difficult for them to be Christians than it is for us. There were only a handful of them, and the staggering might of the whole Roman Empire was aligned against them, yet they believed. They believed that  God was with them. They believed that there was nothing that they could not do in the power of his might. 

Their confidence derived directly from their Master. They had marveled at his great works. They marveled even more when he told them that after he was gone, they would do even greater works" and they did! Eventually that handful converted a whole empire. He had promised them that they would and they did.

Faith like that is always inspiring to behold. According  to Van Wyck Brooks, in his book "The Flowering of New England," William Henry Channing, the dynamic Boston preacher, had that kind of faith. As Brooks put it, Channing "always felt when he arose from his bed, that the one far off event might well occur before he sat down to breakfast."

Thus there was an urgency and an expectancy to his life. We need that same kind of urgency and expectancy today.

As someone has written: "The improbable happens just often enough to make life either disturbing or delightful." But the improbable does happen. Sometimes. Therefore the Lord's word to us is, "Watch!”

Questions to Ponder

• Have you quit watching?

• Do you believe God is with you?

• Is there urgency and expectancy in your life?

In His Service,
Terry Phillips