Comes the Hour, Day of Deliverance!

“Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord.”

— James 5:7a (NRSV)

There is much of life that we still do not have, and what we hope for is still not a reality; some of this, or much of this, will be realised on the Day of the Lord. We cannot hasten it. And we should not loathe the fact that such things will only come at the appointed time, for that time is not far away.

As much as this is about our hopes, it’s also about injustice.

The rich and the so-called ‘blessed’ have, somewhat, a free and pleasurable journey through life, by sense of the opportunity to experience things, majestic.

If we have suffered, just as if we suffer now, we have the blessed hope; that hope of things to come, come that hour; come that day.

Remember Who’s Truly Blessed

Going back to the Beatitudes we find Jesus proclaiming who are the truly blessed: the poor in spirit; those who mourn; the meek; those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; the pure of heart; peacemakers; the persecuted—and those who rejoice in their persecution for the Kingdom.

Those who are truly blessed are those who know God sufficiently to endure patiently.

This is no easy thing for a human being, but it’s not hard at all for the true Christ follower. Theirs is surrender and the pleasure to obey. They are truly blessed because there is no effort that can add value to this gift of grace they already experience.

Living Like an Agent of the Kingdom

Can we think of ourselves as agents of the Kingdom?

In this regard we don’t so much reject the world and its overtures for pleasure or the avoidance of pain, we make these things irrelevant by planning and thinking and doing all in a fashion toward God. The more we are consumed by the Lord in the processes of being, the more we experience levity from those things that will always weigh us down.

Peace is easy when we let go of those things we cannot hold, and grasp with confidence of hand that thing we cannot lose. Materiality has nothing on spirituality. Salvation gives us everything all the blessings in the world promise but cannot deliver. This is that blessed hope to be lived.

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Good things are coming to the patient; comes the hour, comes a day; the Day of the Lord. Of a sense, we already have it. We have everything we need this side of eternity but eternity itself. And that is coming.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.