Turn on the news for ten minutes and you can feel your soul begin to sink. Wars and rumors of wars. Nations rising against nations. Famines, plagues, earthquakes in various places. Lawlessness multiplied. Love grown cold. The veil between sanity and madness thinning by the day. There is a temptation, in such a season, to let our gaze drop. To despair. To fix our eyes on the trouble until the trouble becomes all we see.
But this is not the posture our Lord taught us. When He spoke of the days that would precede His return, He did not tell His disciples to bow their heads. He told them to do the opposite:
When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Luke 21:28
Stand up. Lift up your heads. The very things the world tells you should make you cower are, for the believer, the trumpet blast that says your King is on His way.
The signs are not the story
I want to be careful here. There are well-meaning brothers and sisters who become so consumed with parsing every news headline through the lens of prophecy that they lose sight of the gospel altogether. The signs are not the story. The signs are the messengers. They point us to the story.
And the story, from Genesis to Revelation, is this: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Christ came once as a Lamb to die. He is coming again as a Lion to reign. Both comings are the same gospel.
Why prophecy matters now
If we believe — really believe — that Christ is returning, then everything in our lives must reorganize around that fact. Not in a panicked, end-times-stockpile sort of way. But in a way that is sober, joyful, and unshakable. The Apostle Peter put it like this:
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. 2 Peter 3:11–12
What kind of people ought we to be? Not paralyzed people. Not hoarding people. Not people who have given up on the world and are just trying to survive until the rapture. Holy people. Godly people. People whose lives, by their very fragrance, hasten the day.
Three postures for watchful days
One — Be a watchman, not a worrier
The watchman on the wall in ancient Israel was not anxious. He was alert. There is a difference. The worrier paces. The watchman stands. The worrier wrings his hands. The watchman holds his torch. Worry is faith in the wrong direction; it believes that disaster is more powerful than God. Watchfulness is faith pointed correctly; it believes that no matter what comes, the Lord is on His throne.
Two — Be tender with the lost
If we are right that the King is coming, the most important thing we can do for our neighbor is tell them. Not in an alarmist way. Not in a "turn or burn" way that drives them further from God. With the same tenderness Jesus had for the woman at the well. With the same mercy He had for the thief on the cross. Friend, your unsaved friend is not your enemy. The enemy is the one who has blinded their eyes. Pray for them. Love them. Speak truth to them. The harvest is plentiful — but the workers are few.
Three — Be settled, not shaken
Do not let the headlines preach to you louder than the Word does. Read the Bible more than you read the news. Pray more than you scroll. Worship more than you worry. The Word of the Lord stands forever; the headlines change every six hours. One of these will hold up under your weight. The other will collapse beneath you when you need it most.
The morning star
There is a moment in Revelation, near the end, where Jesus identifies Himself in one of the most beautiful self-descriptions in all of Scripture:
I, Jesus… am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star. Revelation 22:16
The morning star is the last star you can see before the sun rises. When the morning star appears, the night is almost done. The dawn is coming. The long, dark watch is nearly over.
That is what Jesus is for the believer in these days. The morning star. He is what we see when everything else is fading. He is the promise that the night, however long it has felt, is almost over.
So lift up your head, beloved. Whatever load you are carrying. Whatever fear is whispering in your ear. Whatever the world tells you should make you despair. Look up.
The King is coming.
In His Hands,
Rev. George H. Stoddard