Be Ready for the Day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:1-5)

“Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-5)

Pray for a grandma who just lost her husband without even being with him. Just this morning I helped her to send a letter to him who had been sick in a far and different location. Last week, she flew to see him but couldn’t make it. She was stunned and shaken at the failing attempt. However, she was invigorated by a call from someone who said that if she sent a letter then it would be delivered. So, she came to see us and poured out her heart-broken love memories with him in the letter. Ah, what a suddenness and swiftness! She cried out over the phone, regretting that she would have tried harder to see him last week. She ever wished to talk to him before his sudden departure and separation.

It is a dreadful thing to lose someone like husband or wife. But that’s the way it is. We are all once to die. The question is how we are prepared for it. What is seen is not all. Rather, what is unseen is all. So, we have hope in the unseen truth that He is coming like a thief in the night. There is no death in Christ who rose from the dead as the firstfruits of resurrection. We will all be changed at the last trumpet in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, being translated bodily from the earthly tent to the heavenly suit made by the hand of God (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Therefore, we do not lose heart.

Paul says, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) How true and up-to-date it is! We never understand the senseless tragedy happened to Job until God revealed the whole truth. Life is tough and never means to be like a picnic. It requires death to enter into that life. It demands blood to enter into the realm of new life in Christ Jesus. Since we know the truth in Christ, we even rejoice in the sufferings and troubles like the sudden loss of loved ones.