Longing for His Return

Here at IHOP we talk a lot about preparing ourselves for Jesus' return. People get ready, Jesus is coming. You see it all over the New Testament- the writers really were living for His return and hoping He'd to come back at any moment. We sing things like "Come Lord Jesus" and "the Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come'." Every believer knows that one day Jesus is going to come back and wants to be ready to welcome Him.

The other day I was challenged by one of IHOP's speakers, Dana Candler. She asked us this question, "At the heart level do we really want Him to return?"

Or do we hope maybe He'll wait to return until after we ________(get married, have kids, get that job... fill in the blank with your own answer.) She talked about longing for His return in a way I hadn't thought of it before. She talked about it like mourning. You naturally mourn the loss of a loved one. You miss them. You want them back. In Matthew 9:15 when some people asked Jesus why his disciples didn't fast he said, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast."

Jesus himself said his followers would mourn his absence when He left. Do we long for Him in this way? What challenged me most was when Dana said, "How much we long for Him indicates how well we know Him." You don't mourn the loss of someone you don't know. And the better you know them, the more you feel their absence.

I want to get to know Him so much better, so much that I want nothing more than His full-out- with-us presence- His physical return. What could be better than to have Jesus return? He's going to make all things new, right everything that's wrong and wipe away every tear! Why would I want Him to wait... so I can have one more day without Him? Wouldn't it be better to be with Him and not have sin and selfishness keeping me from really experiencing Him as He is?

Let's keep on getting to know Jesus so we can sing with all the saints, "Come Lord Jesus" and mean it! Maranatha!

~Kara