Dec 2 Daniel 8:15-27, Daniel 9:1-19 1 John 2:28-29, 1 John 3:1-10 Proverbs 29:10-18
1 John 2:28
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
Jesus is coming soon. How does that sentence make you fee?
There are some, who shrink back when they hear that. They don’t like to hear it, for several reasons.
Maybe they love the world and their place in it too much. Maybe they feel ashamed because they know that they are not doing what they should be doing (or worse, doing what they should not be doing).
Either way… that way of thinking hardly encourages someone to pray “come quickly Lord Jesus”
How you respond to this idea shows where your heart is. Do you look forward to the day Jesus returns? Do you dread it? Or do you hope it will after you’ve experience more of life?
If we abide in Him, truly in Him, we can look forward to that day with confidence.
Prov 29:18
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Another way this passage is rendered is like this: Without vision, the people perish. Casting off restraint and perishing sound like two different things, but actually one will lead to the other.
It’s not just vision – but prophetic vision. In other words, a vision that comes from God and not man. When we can see God’s plans and God’s heart it gives us something to aim for. It inspires us. Vision gives us something to get out of bed for.
When there is no vision… well it can all start to seem a bit… pointless. We loose focus. We take our eyes off Christ. Then we tend to cast off restraint. When our eyes are taken off Christ then we start looking at other things instead.
But we are blessed when we keep to the law and when we keep focused on the word of God.
