A common prayer of believers over the years has been, “Lord, come quickly!” We long for Jesus to return and put an end to the misery and evil surrounding us. While we know life will be infinitely better and simpler when Jesus returns, we must also recognize we have a mission to accomplish until that day arrives.
If we are going to pray, “Lord, come quickly”, then we must be willing to go quickly ourselves. Jesus has sent us into the world as His ambassadors. He won’t come back until we have gone out and spread the good news of His love and the truth about His character.
I am guilty of pleading with the Lord to come back. I can’t wait to meet Jesus. It’s what I want more than anything in this world. I want to talk with Him face to face, bask in His love, and just be with Him. At times that longing is overwhelming. But the thing is, Jesus gave me a mission to fulfill, and He gave you the same mission. We are to love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27). We’re to love every other person we encounter with that same fanatical love (Luke 10:27). And in so doing, we will be building the Kingdom of God on earth.
The sooner we build that Kingdom, the sooner Jesus will come to dwell in it. We can’t have one without the other. If we want Jesus to come back, then we have to go and do the work He gave us to do. It’s not enough to sit sequestered in our homes praying and waiting for His return. That won’t get it done. You have a job to do. I have a job to do. Building the Kingdom is not work reserved for the few, but rather is for the many. It is the job of all who would follow Jesus.
Discipleship is not a passive experience. It’s a full contact sport. We’re going to need to get dirty and probably a little bloody. We have to give up everything we thought this life was supposed to be about and live for Jesus instead. We’ve got to abandon all the stuff we’ve been accumulating and give it all away to someone who needs it more than we do. Our self-centered, self-seeking lives must be exchanged for an others-centered and serving way of living.
No one wants Jesus to come back more passionately than I do, but neither I nor you can let that fervor distract us from the mission at hand. Yes we want Jesus to come back now. Yes we are sick of the state of this world. But Jesus will return on His terms and until that day we must be diligently working to build His Kingdom. Jesus said if we loved Him, we would feed His sheep (John 21:15-17). Until He returns, that’s what we must do. Love everyone. Serve everyone. Follow Jesus with a reckless abandon so when He does return, you will be well prepared to receive Him.