“Behold I am coming soon! My reward s with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
Revelation 22:12-13, NIV
Today is the first day of January – the beginning of a New Year – a whole year of expectation lies before us. But just as each and every year has a beginning and an end, the universe that God created also has a beginning and an end. John 1 tells us that the Living Word (Jesus) was involved in the creation of everything that was made. And Revelation tells us that the One who made the world and everything in it will one day come again in all His glory – not as the babe of Bethlehem, but as the Kings of Kings and the Judge of all the Earth.
For those who have believed in Jesus, His second coming is an event to be looked forward to and anticipated with joy. But for those who do not know Him, Scripture warns us that “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). As world events escalate and uncertainty on the international front becomes more and more concerning, it’s hard not to wonder how long it will be before the Lord returns. Our only eternal security lies in Him – He, literally, has the whole world in His hands, and if we are secure in Him then we have absolutely nothing to fear.
John Wesley always urged his followers to spend serious time with the Lord on the last day of the old year as a preparation for renewing one’s covenant with God on the first day of every year. You don’t have to be a Methodist to make this valuable spiritual discipline a time of reflection and opportunity – reflection on all that has gone before, and an opportunity to seek the face of God afresh and renew one’s commitment to Him for the year ahead.
None of us knows when the Lord will return, but as was made clear by Jesus in the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), if you wait until He comes to then try and put oil in your lamp, it will be too late – it is only those who are ready when He comes that will be able to enter into the glory of His eternal presence. Be sure of one thing – the Scriptural promises about the first coming of Jesus were all fulfilled – they are evidence to those with ears to hear that the promises about His second Coming will also be fulfilled. May I encourage you, indeed urge you, to be ready at all times. He IS COMING AGAIN!
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that the promises of Scripture were so precisely fulfilled when you came to Earth to be our Saviour. Help me always to be ready at all times for Your return, and to live as if You are returning today, with the lamp of my life always filled with the oil of your presence. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
