One Month until Christ Returns: First part of a Five-part series.
If you knew that our Lord Christ was going to return to earth to judge the living and the dead in one month, what would you do differently?
Seriously, think about that, for our Lord’s desire is that we live as if He is going to return soon and unexpected, “like a thief in the night.”. What things would you do differently? If you only had 30 days left on earth before the great and terrible Day of the Lord, would it change your daily activities?
When I was a young college student, I would have the privilege to hear great speakers in Chapel services and I would go up to each speaker afterwards and ask this question. “If you were my age again, what would you do differently?” Almost everyone said, “I would pray more.” To the same degree and in the same way, our prayer lives reflect our godliness, for the godless do not pray, except for in an emergency or facing death, but many Christians do not pray much. This is one of the reasons that our churches are so weak and powerless to make real change in our society. A praying man will lead his family to be devoted to prayer and many praying men will influence a church to become a praying church.
If you take a stroll back in time to the 1600’s you would see Christian men and women engaged in prayer on a regular basis. You might be tempted to think that the pace was much slower then and they had more time to pray, but both of those thoughts are not true. Yes, the pace was much slower, but it took much more time to accomplish daily activities than it does today. No automatic dishwashers, washing machines, and no automobiles. Even with all the work in daily activities just to survive, men and women, husbands and wives, and churches devoted themselves to prayer. Why? They understood the frailty of life and the strength needed to be “Good soldiers of Christ.” Most were taught in churches that your very next breath is absolutely dependent upon Christ, and they prayed earnestly for the strength to not shrink back in living for the gospel and becoming victorious. This group of devoted men and women are now known as the Puritans and the set the bedrock of Christianity in American. By the grace of God, we have many of the Puritan prayers preserved for us in modern English. One book is titled, The Valley of Vision and I have a Bible, called the ESV Prayer Bible that is filled with the prayers of Puritans and many others going back to the first century.
Christ tells us, “To pray and not lose heart,” Jesus knows it’s difficult to be faithful in prayer or He wouldn’t be concerned about us losing heart. Losing heart is losing your enthusiasm, prayer becomes dull and routine and after a while many believers just stop praying. Most things of value take work to see it come to pass or to see change take place. How many churches today have a Wednesday night Prayer meeting? No many, why? People said they were too busy and stop going. The scriptures reveal a true Christian in Romans 12:12, “Let love be genuine, love one another, be devoted to prayer.” And As Paul was writing to a Church, he expected the congregation to “Continue steadfast in prayer.”–Colossians 4:2. Today, most Christian are not exposed to steadfast prayer, except for the prayer at the beginning and end of a service, and this leads believers to think that prayer isn’t that important.
The Apostle Paul tells to, “Pray without ceasing.” First Thessalonians 5:17. What Paul means is talking to your Heavenly Father throughout the day. We pray to the Father, in the Name of Christ, meaning that we recognize God is holy and we cannot enter into His presence without the righteous covering of Christ. When we pray, we need to “Pray at all times in the Spirit,” Ephesians 6:18 and again, in Jude 1:20, “Pray in the Holy Spirit.” What is praying in the Holy Spirit? It is first realizing that God will not hear our prayers if we have unconfessed sin in our lives. Psalm 66:18, “If I regard sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Once you confess and forsake your sin, you as a believer are in the Spirit. Sin is the only thing that will quench the Holy Spirit inside of you. Keep short accounts of your sins, confessing them and ask God for the strength and grace to forsake all the sins in your life. If you do you will be walking in the Spirit of the living God and your prayers will be heard.
Therefore, part one of this five-part series answers the first question of what to do differently if Jesus was coming in thirty days, and that is to pray in the Spirit more. Next part will be from a direct command of Christ, see if you can guess, or wait until I post the second of five series in preparing for the Second Coming of Christ Jesus our Lord.
