THE Christian has been called to tread “the upward way,” and he who is trusting, following, remembering, witnessing for Christ, will count it his deepest joy to be waiting for Him. He who has so loved Him as to lay down His life, is absent from this world, which rejected Him when He was here and still desires Him not, and those who follow Him, in humble communion with His thoughts, wait for Him in the sure hope which His words bring, “I am coming again.”
With the Lord’s enabling we will consider waiting for Christ in two ways. First, the way of the saints who long to be with Him, and second, His way who desires to have His people with Him where He is.
The man who was called Legion may illustrate the first for us. “He besought Him that he might be with Him” (Luke 8:3838Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, (Luke 8:38)). The story of this man is one of unique interest. Fast held in the grip of a cruel remorseless power, a misery to himself, a terror to his friends, the Stronger One had come and set him free. Now “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind,” how great the contrast! “Delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son” (Col. 1:1313Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (Colossians 1:13)). But now a new fear possesses him; his Benefactor is going away; he sees the ship on the seashore, and the Lord with His disciples about to embark. How will he do now? Who will keep him from the power of the evil one, from which he has been so newly delivered? He prays that he may be with Jesus.
Do you think the blessed Lord would be deaf to such a prayer as that? Ah! no, it should be, it has been, abundantly answered; but when he prayed the time was not yet, and the Lord gives him one small thing to do for Him—to go home and show what great things God had done for him. We know how he went forth and told the story everywhere, himself a living example of the word he spoke. Eternity alone shall tell how many were brought to the Lord through his testimony, or how many were healed and saved from a bondage like his own.
For nearly 1,900 years he has been with the Lord. What lessons he must have learned of Him! What wonders of beauty and glory have been disclosed to his worshipping gaze! Does he regret the little interval between his prayer and its answer? One feels quite sure that he must treasure for evermore the privilege of being sent to do that one thing for the glory of the One who did so much for him. May it be thus with ourselves! Not less may we desire to be with Him, and not less may we value the opportunity of serving Him here, remembering His own words, “Where I am there shall also My servant be” (John 12:2626If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. (John 12:26)).
Let us turn now to the second and far more wonderful part of our meditation. This man in the Gospel story had had no means of learning that THE LORD DESIRED TO HAVE HIS PEOPLE WITH HIM, yet so it was. In John 14 He is going away again, going very far away, not only over the sea, but through the dark waters of death, and the disciples are perplexed about it, because He has had to tell Peter, “Whither I go thou canst not follow Me now”; but He explains to them, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also. In John 17:2424Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24) He prays, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou has given Me, be with Me where I am.”
Do our hearts really take this in? We speak of the Lord’s coming, it is the hope of the Church the only hope for the world; He is the Morning Star and the Sun of Righteousness. We, who have been called and saved by Him, long for Him more than words can say; but who shall describe the sweetness of His assurance that He is coming because He desires to have us with Him? That we should pray to be with Him is little wonder, but it would take eternal days to make known the wonder that He should pray to have us with Him.
It is often said that we are told very little about the future (albeit there is much more than is generally supposed) but it is enough that we shall be with Him. Light undimmed is there, life in all its fullness, love unhindered.
“Glory supreme is there
Glory that shines through all.”
Meantime, He bids us watch and wait for Him. Let us beware lest we are so occupied with the coming, with signs and portents perhaps, that we lose sight of Him who shall come. “We look for the Saviour” (Phil. 3:2020For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Philippians 3:20)) the apostle Paul tells us, and in Luke 12 The servants are to be like unto men that wait for THEIR LORD (verse 36), they are to be watching (verse 37), and doing, (verse 43) and without these two latter there is no true waiting.
How shall we wait for Him? Not, as is said of Christians, as dreamers and stargazers, but that each day He might be our chief thought. That whether in the home, or in service for Him, whether in the countless little tasks of daily life or in the wider fields of Gospel ministry “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:1717That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (Ephesians 3:17)) and that life’s object may be increasingly to please Him and do His will. It gives an urgency to our witness for Christ, since we may have so few opportunities; it speaks imperatively as to all that may be done in His Name—a cup of cold water given, the sick, the prisoner visited, the poor, the fatherless comforted—let it be done today, for there may be no tomorrow.
It touches all our earthly path and relationships. Those who go forth to labor until even for daily bread; the man of affairs, professional, commercial, municipal; the young men and maidens, training in universities and colleges; the boys and girls at school; oh! may the Lord grant you His grace that every day may be spent as though it were the last, that everything in your lives may be in order as though you should one day leave and not return. What would you like the Lord to find you doing when He comes? Shall not your reply be, “Doing faithfully the little task He has given me, in the place where He has set me, and all unto Him”? This is the kind of waiting that will please Him.
This hope has a very sanctifying effect, and yet it is not bondage. Bondage is a word that love knows not. The eternal Lover of our souls says, “Surely I come quickly. Amen,” and love, begotten of love, answers gladly, “Even so, come Lord Jesus,” and in the waiting time between “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” (Rev. 22:20, 2120He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 21The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:20‑21)).
“A little while He’ll come again,
Let us the precious hours redeem;
Our only grief to give Him pain.
Our joy to serve and follow Him.
Watching and ready may we be,
As those that wait their Lord to see.”
L. R.