What Are You Waiting For?

What are you waiting for?

We often use the phrase as a rhetorical question in order to spur someone on to action. But I ask it in all seriousness. What are you waiting for? Or we could ask, what are you hoping the future will bring? And how is that hope shaping how you live in the present?

The fact is, what we believe about what the future will bring, shapes our entire worldview and determines how we will live in the here and now.

Perhaps you look to the future as a fearful alarmist, believing that the world is barreling towards manmade catastrophe. You spend much of your life desperately decrying mankind as a scourge upon the earth, afraid that if he does not change his ways, we will all face sure destruction.

Maybe you are the defeated fatalist. For you, life has little meaning and very little purpose. What will be, will be, and what it will be, is not good. There is little reason for hope, or joy and so the best you can do is hang on and cope with your sad condition however you can until you arrive at your inevitable end.

On the other end of the spectrum, you may be viewing the future as a naïve optimist. You believe that everything will just work itself out in the end. You don't know how or why, but your ignorance is blissful, so you go about your life however you wish, with little concern for the future or how your life now will affect it. You have hope but it is an empty hope, lacking reason or justification.

Maybe you are neither the fearful alarmist, naïve optimist, nor the defeated fatalist. Perhaps you are the panicked conspiracist. That is, in your worldview you are forever the potential victim of the powers that be. Power brokers who meet in secret to plot ways to control you, track you or even kill you. Everyone has hidden motives and secret agendas. You are convinced that if enlightened people do not sound the alarm and expose the conspiracies, and uncover the suppressed truths, we are hopeless, destined for a future of subjugation.

Maybe you are none of these, but instead you are the happy hedonist. You believe life is short and your purpose is to get as much out of it as you can, while you can. You chase pleasure and success hoping to find a measure of satisfaction and fulfillment from this world since you know you’re only going around once!

Maybe you are one of these, but hopefully not. From that short list however, we can see how one’s view of the future can and does affect the way we live here and now. Whatever it is that we are expecting, or anticipating in the future determines our attitude, motivations, priorities and actions in the present. Furthermore, whatever it is we believe the future holds, determines how me cope with the fears, disappointments and struggles of this life.

So, when I ask "what are you waiting for", what I'm really asking is, "what is your view of the future, and how does it impact the way you live and think and relate and cope here and now?"

Well, you will not be surprised to learn that the Bible gives us a comprehensive worldview, including a clear understanding of what the future holds so that we can live as God intends in the present. In Titus 2:11-15, we find how God himself, through the Apostle Paul, describes what awaits us and how that knowledge should form our worldview, and shape our lifestyle.

Titus 2:11-15 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Here Paul tells Titus to teach the believers on the island of Crete to live a lifestyle which renounces ungodliness and worldly passions; which exercises self-control; and which pursues uprightness and godliness. Then, in verse 13, he reveals that all of this should be driven by their hope for the future.

“…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.“

Live this way because you are living in anticipation of Christ’s return. Live this way now, because of what you know is coming in the future. Live this way, because you have a blessed hope.

The promised return of Jesus Christ has always been the hope of the church. When he returns, he will usher in his eternal kingdom; he will finally eradicate sin and reverse the curse; he will raise the dead; he will glorify us; and he will finally receive all the glory that is due him. At his coming, he will bring reward and vindication for those who belong to him. He will right all wrongs and execute perfect justice. Our lives of delayed gratification will finally give way to eternal blessedness. We will finally, actually receive everything that we’ve spent our lives anticipating through hope.

This hopeful anticipation became a hallmark of genuine faith in the first century. Paul commended the Thessalonians for such an attitude…

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

The Apostle Paul encouraged the Cretans, through Titus, to live a godly life in light of Christ’s second coming. He commended the Thessalonians for the sincerity of their faith – evidenced by their hopeful anticipation of Christ’s return. Beyond this, Paul wrote to Timothy and revealed that it was this same hope which drove his own self-sacrificing life of devotion to the Lord:

2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Believers in the New Testament understood that Christ had promised to come again. This truth penetrated every area of their lives. They renounced worldliness, they lived self-controlled and godly lives, they labored for their Lord, they even endured suffering and persecution with joy. Why? Because they believed they were living in the shadow of Christ’s promised return.

Believer, are you living such a life? If not, what are you waiting for?