Devotional for Wednesday May 10, 2006: How to Wait
Greg Laurie Senior Pastor Harvest Christian Fellowship Riverside, Ca
Therefore He said: "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.' "
Like children on Christmas Eve who can't wait for morning to come to open their presents, we should be looking for the Lord's return in the same way. Yet a lot of believers are not doing this at all. They are not watching and waiting. Instead, they are simply biding their time.
James tells us in his epistle, "Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain" (James 5:7). The word James uses for "patient" is not speaking of a passive resignation, but of a patient, expectant waiting on the Lord. James is not saying we should have a laissez-faire attitude that says, "I suppose the Lord will show up one of these days. It might be in my lifetime. . . . I don't know." Rather, we should be waiting in expectancy and excitement, even joy.
And in Romans 13, we are reminded that as we understand the present time, the hour has come for Christians to "awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed" (verse 11). The passage continues, "Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (verses 13–14).
