1 Corinthians 1:5-8 “For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Today's episode talks about how easy it is put things off to another day and yet we have no guarantee that we will get another day. If Christ came tomorrow, would we be ready? What do we need to start doing differently so we can say yes to that question? Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Are We Ready?
1 Corinthians 1:5-8 “For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What I thought about when I read this verse was how the apostles thought that they would see the second coming of Jesus in their time. They thought Jesus was coming back soon and that they would need to be ready for it. I wonder if that made it easier for them to stay ready for His return. I feel as thought the apostles had the benefit of living with Jesus and learning directly from Him. They got to see His miracles up close and personal and they got to have a personal relationship with Jesus. From what I can remember learning or hearing, the apostles thought Jesus would return during their lifetime.
I was thinking that it might have been easier for them to stay on the straight and narrow because they had that time they got to spend with Jesus while he was a live and then they also had the thought that Jesus would be returning any day now for judgment. I thought of the Bible verse Matthew 24:42, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” The apostles thought his return was imminent and so I wonder if it was easier to prepare for it and stay ready?
We on the other hand, many of us probably don’t even really understand what is going to happen when Jesus comes again. I will be honest, I do not know a lot. I know he will come to judge the living and the dead. I know this because we say it each week at church. I don’t know much more about it. I did hear a bit about it during the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a year podcast a week or so ago. It was very interesting and definitely something I should spend some more time reading about. However, regardless of how much we know about it, most people know that there will be a seconding coming of Christ and that we should be ready for it. Are we?
I think we would all be living our lives very differently if we knew Christ was coming tomorrow. And example of this would be when my husband Tony goes away on a trip. When Tony is here I try to stay up on the laundry, dishes, and forth. I don’t really like housework, but I try. However, when Tony is away on a trip I don’t do any of that as I know my boys don’t care, they are teens who rarely come out of their rooms. Don’t get me wrong, if he is gone for a long period of time, I will clean, but if it is a few days, I usually don’t do much in the way of cleaning, which feel great to me. I get a break and it doesn’t bother anyone.
The problem is the night before he comes home. If I had just kept up with the chores the whole time he was gone, then the night before he came home wouldn’t be anything special. However, I don’t. So, the night before Tony comes home I am usually up until the wee hours cleaning all the dishes, putting the laundry away, making sure the counters are clean. I am not doing this because I have to, I am doing it because I know Tony likes it that way and because I want to make him happy. He always has the house spotless when I return from a trip, so I try to return the favor. This is why I say I think our lives would be different if we knew the day and hour that Christ was coming.
We go about our days as if the next day is guaranteed to us. We take a lot of things for granted. For instance, we just assume we will wake up to see another day of life, we assume we will get to see our grandchildren grow up and get married, or even our children get married. We go about life as if we will live to be a very old age. Yet, none of that is guaranteed. I am not trying to be all doom and gloom. I am just trying to get us all to realize that we have no idea what day will be our last day and we should live accordingly. When I say live accordingly, I don’t mean we should be fearful and anxious each day thinking that could be our last day. I mean we should live each day to the fullest. We shouldn’t leave things unsaid. We shouldn’t procrastinate and push things off until the next day, week, month or year because we don’t know if those will ever come.
The same goes with the state of our soul. We should all be living “as if.” As if Jesus was coming again tomorrow. As if today was our last day. As if our decisions matter, because they do. We don’t know when Jesus is coming. Do we want to be caught unprepared on that last day? Do we want Jesus to pass us by because we kept putting off going to confession, or forgiving that person we know we needed to forgive? Wow, when that thought came to me I felt as if the Holy Spirit wanted me to emphasize that one. Are you holding onto unforgiveness. Are you trying to wait until the last possible second to forgive someone? What if you don’t get that chance? What if you are taken right before you thought you would be? Don’t wait! Unforgiveness is not helping you and it’s not hurting the other person. Just let go, let go of the anger, let go of the hate, let go of all the feeling that aren’t serving you. Give all of that to Jesus and allow him to come into your heart and heal it.
The people in the verse above were eagerly awaiting the coming of Christ, are we? They were trying to stay prepared because they thought He might be coming any day now. For us, we know it has been about almost 2,000 years and he has not returned yet, so I don’t think we expect Him anytime soon. However, we don’t know. In Matthew 24:36 it says, ““But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” We don’t know when He is coming and so we need to be prepared.
What do you need to do to be ready for Christ’s coming? I am not talking about saying 100 rosaries, or going to church every single day. I am talking about what do you have to get right with your soul? Do you need to take inventory of your life and see if you are putting God first? Do you need to look at your life and see which things are in need of repentance. That is what John the Baptist was preaching about the first coming of Jesus. “Repent and turn back to the way of the Lord.” Do we need to do that? Have we turned away, either with our hearts, our minds, or our actions? If so, it’s ok, just turn back. God is always waiting there for us with open arms, just waiting for us to come home. Then He scoops us up in a loving embrace, puts one of his finest robes on us, puts his ring upon our finger and throws us a party and says, “My son/daughter who was lost, has come home!”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this podcast today. Lord, we want to be ready when you come again, please help us. Put on our hearts all the things we keep putting off. Put on our hearts all the things we are not aware of that are not good for our soul. Lord, let us repent and be truly sorry for these things Lord. We love you Lord, you are amazing! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to brining you another witness tomorrow. If you would like to share your story, witness or testimony, reach out to me. We would all love to hear it! Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!