A Verse for When… You Want Motivation and Spiritual Urgency
How often do you think about the day Jesus comes back again? The Bible talks about it quite a bit. One place is at the end of Romans 13, where we are reminded that the day is near. Romans 13:12 says:
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. -Romans 13:12
In this verse, the “night” is referring to the kingdom of darkness. As sinful humans living in an imperfect world, we are navigating life in this kingdom of darkness. One way we persevere is by keeping our eyes on the day when the night will be over and Jesus will restore the world to its original perfection. We will be able to enjoy perfect fellowship with God again! And when that day arrives, we won’t even need the sun anymore. Isaiah 60:19 says Jesus Himself will be our everlasting light. What a day that will be!
As my chronological Bible reading plan read through Romans 13 recently, the readers on the podcast were reading from The Voice translation. As they passed by Romans 13:12 and read the next verse, the first half it read like this:
May we all act as good and respectable people, living today the same way as we will in the day of His coming. -Romans 13:13
That was a verse I needed to hear! What a great reminder—that I should be living TODAY the exact same way I will aspire to live on the day Jesus returns. For me, it’s extremely helpful to take a verse like this one every so often and really stop to think about it. Can we do that now?
In the past 24 hours…
- What kinds of thoughts have you had?
- What words have you spoken to people?
- How much time have you spent talking to God?
- How much time have you spent reading and meditating on God’s Word?
- Who have you served?
- Who have you been generous toward?
- What kind or generous thing did you think about doing—but didn’t actually do?
- How have you chosen to spend your free time?
- What kinds of things have you spent money on?
- What do you wish you hadn’t done?
- What do you wish you hadn’t said?
- Who do you wish you’d shared the gospel with?
- When did you pass up an opportunity to say something about Jesus to a loved one?
Even as followers of Jesus, it’s impossible to perfectly abide by His will every minute of every day. But we can strive to live the same way today as we would ideally hope to be living on the day He returns. If you kept that thought in the back of your mind as you navigated life, can you imagine how your day-to-day might look differently? Maybe it wouldn’t look drastically different for you, but on the other hand, maybe it would.
Would you consider putting Romans 13:13 on your phone home screen for a few weeks to help train your mind to think more often about Jesus’ return? More specifically, can you make this verse more visible somehow so that you’ll be challenged to let your thoughts, choices and actions be impacted?
I’m challenging myself while also challenging you to live today in the same way you will live on the day Jesus returns to claim His own. While the verse instructs us to live as “good” and “respectable,” I feel like that might even be the bare minimum. Go out today, and make waves for Jesus! If you knew He’d be coming in the clouds two hours from now, how might you spend the next two hours? Consider that thought, and then challenge yourself to live that way every day.