What is your long-range plan? Where do you see yourself twenty or thirty or forty years from now? What will you be doing? Where will you be? Who will be with you? Will you even be alive? Where will you be when Jesus Christ returns?
If we have been in professional classes or in business, we have been asked to make plans. Some plans are short-term, and some are long-term. But even long-term business plans do not usually go beyond ten years. So how can I ask you to think about forty years down the road?
Those are the terms we should be thinking in as a follower of Christ. Our view should be a long-term view. There will be hiccups, stumbles, setbacks, and troubles in this life. But they are only short-term things we must deal with. The good news is, we do not need to deal with them alone. Jesus promised a helper for us, that is the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17).
When we take the long-term view, we can withstand the short-term interruptions. It takes focus and discipline to maintain a long-term view. We must continually remind ourselves that Jesus will return, and we will be with Him for eternity. Yes, there will be a resurrection. Yet, we will not stay in our old bodies. We do not know what we will be, but we will be like Christ (1 John 3:2).
When Christ returns, no one will miss it. Everyone will hear the command. Everyone will hear the archangel’s call. Everyone will hear God’s trumpet. Everyone will see Christ descend. We cannot fathom how that will be, but God knows. We do not need to understand everything to believe. What we need to do is be ready for His return.
I pray we all take a long-term view. I pray we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us get through the short-term interruptions. I pray each one of us are ready for Christ’s return. Lean on the Holy Spirit. Know there will be a resurrection. Know you won’t miss Christ’s return. Be ready when He does.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Marty Pressey 