Watchfully Waiting
It has been said that we spend some ten to twenty per cent of our lifetime just waiting. Waiting for various things, such as time to go home or time to work, or waiting for the wife to finish shopping, or perhaps waiting for dinner to be served. No doubt it is true that we spend a great amount of time just waiting for certain events to transpire. Much time slips through our fingers in this way. Usually this is inactive waiting spent in day-dreaming or impatient twiddling of thumbs.
As believers in the Bible, we also do another kind of waiting. But this waiting is quite different from the above type. We wait for Christ. In contrast to the impatient and inactive waiting mentioned above, this waiting is active and industrious. Perhaps we could call it waiting with a watchful eye.
This brings to our minds the parable of the ten virgins recorded in Matthew 25:1-13. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. The five virgins were wise because they were prepared. All ten were waiting, but only five were waiting in preparedness for the bridegroom. It is not enough simply to wait for the Lord; we must be watchful and prepared during this period.
We must constantly be in readiness for the second coining of the Lord. While we wait for Him to come and receive His own into glory, we must be working busily in His vineyard. "Watch therefore; for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have waited, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 24:42-44) The thief comes at an unexpected time catching the master of the house by surprise. Such will be the manner of the Lord's coming. It will be a terrible surprise to many who will be caught totally unprepared, but it need not be so to the Christian. Faithful children of God wait and watch for the Lord and are ready for Him whenever He may come. We must continually watch our thoughts and actions to keep them clean for we know not when the Christ shall come. We do not know the hour, day, year or even century, but this we certainly do know: He shall come at an unexpected hour reaping vengeance on those who know not God and do not obey His will, (2 Thess. 1:8)
If you had a very valuable possession and desired to hire a watchman to look after it, you would not choose one who slept half of the time and was very unreliable. Rather you would desire a man in whom you could put your complete trust — one who would watch all the time over your precious possession. Dear reader, you DO have a very valuable possession, in fact the most precious thing in the whole world. Your own soul! It is priceless. Your soul will live on after your body has long decayed in the grave. How well are you watching over it? Are you prepared to meet the Lord and give an account for the things done in the body? If you are not, then you have failed to wait properly for the Lord.
While the five foolish virgins were away to buy more oil, the door was shut. They could not gain admittance; it was too late. At death the door will be shut for you and me. The door of opportunity will be forever shut. The door to learning and obeying God's word will be shut. The door will be shut to any second chances just as it was to the rich man of Luke sixteen.
"It is appointed unto man once to die and after this cometh judgment." (Hebrews 9:27) Realizing this fact, may we all prepare ourselves to leave this earth. This old world is temporary but the next life shall be everlasting. Wait for the Lord with watchfulness. "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he bath done, whether it be good or bad." (2 Cor. 5:10) "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, And every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." (Romans 14:8-12) No person will escape this judgment. Every individual should he watchfully waiting.
Every day we should live as if it were our last on this earth — for it very well may be.
— 241 Grant Street, Coalinga, California