Be Alert, Not Presumptuous!

42 Therefore, STAY AWAKE, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. . . . 44 Therefore you also must BE READY, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24)

I've highlighted two phrases, "Stay Awake," and "Be Ready," because they summarize the prevailing attitude that should characterize the spiritually-minded believer . . . and ALL Christians should be spiritually minded! Stay awake, don't be presumptuous. I wonder if we confuse this word with a similar word, assumption? The thesaurus gives these synonyms for "presumptuous": arrogant, bigheaded, conceited, and audacious. That's much stronger than assumption, "supposing something to be true." Only those who've lost sight of the immanence of Jesus' return will fall into such a soul-dulling frame of mind. We must be on guard that our faith does not fail, and presumption take over!

How To Guard Ourselves?

In his 70 "Resolutions," Jonathan Edwards, at the age of 21, settled it in his life that he would prepare to live carefully (faithfully), considering the times:

1. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

2. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live.

3. Resolved, Never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

AWAKE & BE READY!

A. W. Tozer writes in Born After Midnight:

The fall of man has created a perpetual crisis. It will last until sin has been put down and Christ reigns over a redeemed and restored world.

Until that time the earth remains a disaster area and its inhabitants live in a state of extraordinary emergency. . . .

In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were “normal.” Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed.

To me it has always been difficult to understand those evangelical Christians who insist upon living in the crisis as if no crisis existed. They say they serve the Lord, but they divide their days so as to leave plenty of time to play and loaf and enjoy the pleasures of the world as well. They are at ease while the world burns; and they can furnish many convincing reasons for their conduct, even quoting Scripture if you press them a bit

God helps us all!