Friday August 2, 2024

Luke 12:36
You yourselves be like men who wait for their master,
when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes
and knocks they may open to him immediately.

Jesus is waiting for the day when he is to return.

He takes for granted that all His real friends are doing likewise. This runs like a red thread through all His sayings about His second advent.

If I understand Jesus correctly, to await the return of the Lord is one of the signs that we are true friends of Jesus.

Are we awaiting His return?

Or has something gone to pieces within us, as a result of which the day which Jesus looks forward to with rejoicing has become distant and unreal?

I remember from the time that I was a lad how we children looked forward with joy to the return of faith and mother when they had been away. But I remember also that there were times when I did not look forward with joy. I had not behaved properly. I can still remember the anxiety I felt when I heard the sound of the wagon in the distance.

Nothing is harder for Jesus to bear than that His return has become a thing to be feared. There are many who did wait for His return years ago, but who no longer do so.

One awaits with joy those whom one loves.

At the railway station we see the station master. He is all ready; the flyer can come whenever it will. But whether it comes or not makes little difference to him.

But look at old Anne over there. She is listening for the train and asking about it. For she is waiting for it. Andrew, her son, is coming on that train. And she has not seen him for twenty years.

“Bear through the night
Your well-trimmed light,
Speed forth to join the marriage rite.”

O. Hallesby, God’s Word for Today: A Daily Devotional for the Whole Year, translator Clarence J. Carlsen (Augsburg, 1994)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.