ODB: always there
September 5, 2010 READ: Psalm 55:16-23 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. —Psalm 55:17 The radio engineers who work at RBC Ministries were getting ready to broadcast a program via satellite. They had prepared everything, including the satellite link. But just as they [...]
ODJ: what are you waiting for?
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see (11:1).
READ: Hebrews 10:32-11:2
My corner of the world recently concluded one of the coldest summers on record. Then snowflakes fell early in the fall. My friends and I joke that we don’t know about global warming, but we’re all for it. We’re threatening to buy larger vehicles and any product that comes in aerosol—whatever it takes to expand the greenhouse effect and extend our summers.
Despite our gallows humor, many of our neighbors continue to warn us about the impending danger of climate change and our need to reduce our carbon emissions. Their concerns demonstrate a kind of faith. They may not directly experience rising temperatures, yet their calls for change have led many to conclude that global warming is a future reality which requires action now.
According to Hebrews 11:1, this is the very definition of faith. This verse describes faith as the confidence (“the substance”) of “what we hope for” and the assurance (“the proof”) of “things we cannot see.” Faith brings the invisible facts of the future into the present.
Some see reasons to believe in climate change, but we can all know with certainty that Jesus will return to establish the “new heavens and new earth” (2 Peter 3:13). We may not live to see the second coming, but like the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, we may die “still believing what God had promised . . . . They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it” (v.13).
Our expectations for the future determine how we live now. If we expect Jesus to return, we will live as though He might come back today. The pressing question of the present is all about the future. What are you waiting for?
—Mike Wittmer
“What are you waiting for?” can mean (1) passively—are you expecting Jesus’ return? and (2) actively—what are you doing to anticipate His coming? Why are both elements, and their order, important?
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