SCRIPTURE: Revelation 22
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. [Revelation 22:20-21]
The bible ends with a promise and a prayer – I am coming soon … come Lord Jesus!
John adds one more prayer: the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people, Amen!
The promise and the prayer reveal the two sides to this book.
The Lord clings to us through His promise, and we cling to Him through His promise.
He longs for us, and is doing His part to help us; we long for Him, and do our part to hang on to Him.
Through the trials and the tears, through the crises and the valleys, His promise comes to us and our prayers go to Him.
“Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. [John 14:1-3]
Here again, what the Lord is doing towards us (preparing a place, coming back for us) and what we do towards Him (refusing to be troubled, believing in Him).
Notice that our part includes resisting the devil’s lies and schemes.
Everything he does is designed to discourage, deflate and defeat us, to trouble our hearts so that we lose sight of the Lord and His promise.
We need to resist, we need to fight, we need to pray and pay and pray, through all the crises and valleys and trials and tears – come Lord Jesus, come quickly!
This is where praise and prayer are also expressions of spiritual warfare, we are declaring the truth (Jesus is Lord, Jesus is preparing for us, Jesus is coming soon) against Satan’s lies (Jesus is not Lord, He has abandoned us, He is not coming soon).
Every time we repeat and claim the promises of the Lord, we are doing battle with Satan, and we are reinforcing ourselves in the truth.
If we do not do this, we soon forget the promise, and feel abandoned, hopeless.
Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll. [Revelation 22:7]
The promise is repeated here too, as well as the need for our part – to keep the words of this prophecy.
Keeping this words means clinging to them, meditating on them, echoing them and relying on them, finding strength in them.
Through all the trials and tears and crises and valleys.
This is how we keep our hearts from being troubled, by believing (and clinging to) God and the Jesus and their promise!
“Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
PRAYER:
Lord, at the end of three years of reflecting on the bible, there is no better way to finish than to echo the promise and the prayer – “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.