MARANATHA! COME LORD JESUS! 1 Peter 4; 2 Peter 3; 1 Peter 5
When the Lord comes, His desire is for all who cry “Maranatha!” to be ready and eagerly waiting to go with Him to His Father’s house.
John 14:2-3 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
Be serious and watchful
1 Peter 4:7 “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.”
- Lord – Help me to know that the end of all things is near.
- Reveal to me, the magnitude of the mercy I received at Calvary so that I can be serious and watchful.
Be mindful
2 Peter 3:2-4a “that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, 3knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? …”
- Lord – Help me by Your Spirit to be mindful of Your words and commandments, and take practical steps to obey, knowing that You are not slack concerning His promise. 2 Peter 3:9.
- Let alarm bells ring in me when scoffers come to pollute my mind with fragmented gospel and lies. Silence every voice contrary to the full gospel.
1 Peter 4:1-3 “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
- Help me by Your Spirit to arm myself with the mind of Christ.
- Bring me into this ‘suffering in the flesh’ that makes me cease from sin.
- Break down every stronghold in my mind that binds me to lusts of the flesh and obscures the will of God.
Be diligent
2 Peter 3:10, 14 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”
“14Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;”
- Lord – Establish it in me that heaven and earth will pass away - everything will be burned up.
- As I wait for these things to happen, make me diligent to be found by You in peace - the peace that is upon all those who follow the rule of the new creation. Gal 6:15-16.
- Give me a fresh revelation of the mechanisms of my deliverance at the cross. I died – old man passed away; sinful habits passed away; sinful habitat passed away. I live – I was given the spotless and blameless life of Christ and translated inside Him.
- Grant me the grace to allow the new man to live His spotless and blameless life in me.
Be humble
1 Peter 5:5-6 “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”
- Lord –Expose every prideful way in me. I do not want to hide under fig leaves (e.g. my gifts, my experience, my belongings, my family background).
- Bring me to understand that You resist the proud. I want to be part of the ingathering and it will not include the proud.
- Affect my heart with Your Word unto repentance. Help me to humble myself in Your sight, and You will lift me up. James 4:10.
- Help me to submit to my elders in humility to be discipled into Christ.
- Have mercy on me, O Lord!
When the Lord comes, may I be found serious, watchful, mindful, diligent and humble.
MARANATHA!! COME LORD JESUS!!
