EPISODE 778 – BE WATCHFUL AS THE LORD COMES 1

Well that is not even possible in any way. Your self-efforts can not bring you into the righteousness of God in Christ. Your self-righteousness is no righteousness at all, before the  Lord.

“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.” Isaiah 64:6 (NLT)

The coming of the Lord will not be to you (the born again) as a thief pounces on the innocent; not because of your good deeds.

Whatever you enjoy in Christ as a believer, is not essentially because of your self-effort. It is first according to what Christ has accomplished for you. You received all that Christ has accomplished for you through your faith in Him and His finished work through His death, burial and resurrection.

Your faith in Christ brings you into an eternal reality of life. This reality determines what you enjoy and how you function. Whatever you enjoy in the Lord, and whatever He instructs you to do is according to what He has supplied into you and how He has positioned you.

Take note of Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonians 5.

He said, “But you, beloved brothers and sisters, are not living in the dark, allowing that day to creep up on you like a thief coming to steal. For you are all children of the light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night nor to darkness. This is why we must not fall asleep, as the rest do, but keep wide awake and clearheaded” 1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 (TPT).

Did you see that?

Two crucial matters are stated here:
1. A benefit — that day shall not creep on you like a thief coming to steal.

2. Instruction — therefore keep awake or be alert or be watchful.

And these above matters I have mentioned are because of:

– The believers’ identity and disposition in Christ — We are children of light and the day

– The believer’s position and possession — You are not living in the dark, but in the light. You don’t belong to darkness. You belong to the day and your source is the Father in whom there is no darkness neither is there a shadow of turning (James 1:17).

This then puts Paul’s instruction, “be watchful…” into proper perspective.

The Apostle Paul’s instruction is not to create any sense of trepidation. Clearly,  from the first few verses of chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians he quashed every idea of fear, anxiety and hopelessness at the thought of the Lord’s coming.

Therefore Paul’s instruction to believers to be watchful cannot be because of the Lord’s coming. But to be watchful because you are in the light and must not live under the influence of deception and spiritual blindness as the people in darkness.

He was admonishing the Church that because we are in the light, we must stay awake in the spirit and alert with our eyes fixed on the truth.

Refuse to live in the fear and anxiety as of those who are in the darkness. Refuse to be unconcerned and ignorant about the coming of the Lord.

When you are watchful or alert of the Lord’s coming, you will live in the consciousness and care of shining forth the light of the Lord in a crooked and perverse generation.

Hallelujah!