Waiting for God
Scripture Reading — Matthew 24:1-14
They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
Matthew 24:30
How good are you at waiting? I’m reminded of how little patience I have every time I come down with the flu. I give myself 24 hours to get better. After that, I start getting depressed and restless. My wife tells me I’m a poor patient. I am. I hate to wait.
The church has been waiting for the return of Christ for almost two thousand years. That’s a long time. So it’s not surprising that some people have given up. Maybe you are among them.
In his play Waiting for Godot, the playwright Samuel Beckett suggests that the wait is pointless. God has become bored with this world and has abandoned his participation in the human drama.
Jesus knew how hard it would be for us to wait. That’s why he gave us a host of signs that point to his coming. Some of those signs speak of a world experiencing the brokenness of the fall: earthquakes, famines, wars, and rumors of war. Other signs speak of a world experiencing the power of grace: the proclamation of the gospel to all nations.
Today, both kinds of signs are very much with us. That means our anticipation of Christ’s return should be fresh and lively.
What Christ has begun, he will finish. Live in the daily hope of the Lord’s return!
Lord, the years roll by, and we can lose a sense of how immediate your coming can be. Forgive us. Charge our obedience with the realization that you may return today. Amen.
About the author — Bob Heerspink
Dr. Robert Heerspink was director of Back to God Ministries International from 2006 until 2011, when he passed away. He had previously pastored several Christian Reformed churches. Bob loved to write and was a frequent contributor to the Today devotional.
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