The Eleventh Hour (2)

Last week I said that waiting until the eleventh hour – just before dying – isn’t too late to become a Christian by having faith in and obeying Jesus. Don’t think God won’t accept you because you waited so long. However, if it isn’t your eleventh hour, don’t wait!

What time is it? No matter what our age is or how good our lives may be going, we don’t know how much time we have to live. Someone said, “Some people plan to return to God in the eleventh hour and die at 10:59." Christians are NOT morbidly pessimistic, but they are realistic and say that today is our day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2) because we don’t know we have tomorrow (Jas 4:15).

The Lord is coming. Jesus is going to return at any time, without warning, and will judge the world (1 Thess 5:3). At His coming, what He will do will happen in the blink of an eye and there will be no time for repentance and obedience (1 Cor 15:52). Everyone will bow before Jesus (Phil 2:10-11) to give account for their actions (1 Cor 5:10; Matt 16:27). Christians look forward to His coming and remind everyone that today is our day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2) because we don’t know we have tomorrow (Jas 4:15).

Before the difficult days come. Ecclesiastes 12:1 says, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” If we put off obeying and serving our Creator, the time will come when life will get busy and hard and we won’t think about obeying or it won’t interest us. We think life will slow down or we’ll correct our mistakes or not be interested in sin later, but God says it doesn’t work like that. We need to do it now because today is our day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2) and we probably won’t recognize our day of salvation if we wait.

Wasted life. Waiting until the eleventh hour to turn to God is not only risky, but it is also wasting our lives. “…godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timn 4:8). Life is better as a Christian because of forgiveness, hope, peace, etc. And throughout lives we can grow spiritually, bringing us into incredible close relationships with God and others. We have precious few years to praise, glorify, thank, and serve our great and merciful God. Waiting to obey and serve God robs us of a life of showing God and others that He is our God and Savior (and will save others too).

If you’ve waited this long, you have no reason to wait any longer. Return to God before it is your midnight.  dd