Praying for His return.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. (Luke 1:10 ESV)
But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. (Luke 1:13 ESV)
Many of us have read the story in Luke about how God the Father had prepared the way for His Son to come to earth. For hundreds and thousands of years, the Children of Israel longed for their Deliverer to come and they would pray for His coming. Little girls would hear from when they were small that maybe one day they could be the one who would be so blessed to bring about the birth of their Deliverer just as Moses’ mom was fortunate to give birth to the great God ordained deliverer, Moses. This was that hope upon the godly Israel’s heart.
We know after Luke 1 that through the prayers of Israel, God brought about His Son and they did not receive Him (John 1:11). They continued to pray for their Deliverer. And though they were looking at Him in the face, they could not come to believe this was their Deliverer. We know this by Mark 2:18-22 (18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” ESV)
Now we may say, “how sad, here Israel prayed for their Deliverer to come and longed for Him to come and when He shows up, they don’t realize it.” But before we are too quick to judge Israel for their missing the mark, I have to ask myself, “Have I even aimed at the mark?” What I mean is, when was the last time you or I prayed and fasted for the Lord Jesus, who we now know, to come back? You know when I had cancer, many said, (and this was so encouraging to me) “we are praying for you as you go to NY to have that operation and we are asking the Lord to bring you back.” Many prayed and even fasted for me to come through that cancer and return to AZ. And when the Lord heard your prayers, you and I rejoiced like it was nobody’s business.
And then when I read these verses, my heart is convicted. “O Lord, who is fasting and praying and longing and hoping and crying out to You for You to return. O Lord, it is one thing to remove cancer from my body and I am so thankful for this, but it is another thing to remove completely Satan’s dominion over this earth and to bring about a new heaven and a new earth. And who is praying to that end?”
O dear brother and sister in Christ, rejoice if the Lord is calling you to pray like that. He did that with Israel and He will certainly do it again with His Children who have called on Him through faith in Jesus Christ.
May we be like John in Revelations 22:20b “...Even so, Come Lord Jesus.” or the saints who were before God - “They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6:10 ESV)
May we be that generation who cries out to the Lord - “O Lord Jesus, we are praying that You come back.” What a joy it will be for the Savior to find this kind of faith on earth.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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