1 Kings 10-11 Luke 21:20-38

“So be ready all the time. Pray that you will be strong enough to escape all these things that will happen and that you will be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36 NCV)

This passage begins with Jesus talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and then moves on to the return of Christ. We know that the destruction of Jerusalem happened around forty years later. We still don’t know when Jesus will come back to earth. What we do know is that Jesus will return. Jesus never set dates. He gave signs to look for. He gave us conditions to expect before His return. He never told us month, day, year of His return. What He told us to do about His return was to be ready all the time and that one of the ways we stayed ready was by being faithful.

Since the year 2000 alone, the Rapture or the end of the world has been more than thirty times. The next predicted date is June 24 of this year. Needless to say, none of those predictions have come true. Not all of these predictions have been by Christians, but I’m amazed at the number of Christians who make and/or believe such predictions. In order to make them, you have to believe that you are more in tune with the Father than Jesus was. Likewise, to believe someone’s prediction about the end of the world, you have to believe that person was more in tune with the Father than Jesus was. Jesus made a point of mentioning that no one, not even He Himself, knew the day or the hour. What Jesus did tell us to do was to be ready. All the time. If we had an exact time, we’d probably mess around, and then start getting ready about an hour or two before He came. The call to be ready always reminds us that people look at us all the time and our actions can draw people to Christ or drive them away. It also reminds us that life is short, and we never know when the end is. I’ve seen too many stories recently about people who have died at a young age. Even if we knew the exact date of Jesus’s return and made plans to get ready an hour before He came, we have no guarantee that we’ll live to that day and hour. Thus we should always be ready in our relationship with God.

Lord, let me live ready for Your return. Let my life be a testimony of Your love and forgiveness and may all I do draw people to You.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.