Becoming a Disciple - Week 2, Day 3

Test Day (What Are You Looking Forward To)

August 12, 1981. It was my sixteenth birthday, and in the state of Missouri, you have to wait until you’re sixteen to get the one and only piece of freedom every 16-year-old can’t wait to have: a driver’s license.

My mom took me down to the Missouri Motor Vehicle Department at the unbelievably early hour of 8:00 am. It wasn’t her fault. I was the one dragging her out of her bed. She told me to wait until later in the day, but I just couldn’t wait. Just between you and me, I had been up all night worried about both the written and driving test, and to be honest with you, it wasn’t so much the driving part that had me so stressed. It was that rotten written test that had my stomach in knots. In high school, I choked on tests regularly. I don’t know what would happen, but suddenly, I would feel sick and forget everything I had just studied the night before. Panic would set in, and I would just sit there biting my pencils in half, talking to myself, suddenly realizing that no answers were going to pop inside my brain on this day. The test was sitting in front of me, like so many others in the past, was just mocking me, saying, “You’re stupid, you’re dumb, you’re never going to pass. You’re stupid; you’re dumb, you’re never going to pass.” I would just sit there staring back at the test with tear-filled eyes, saying to myself, “I know, I know!” That’s pretty pathetic, huh?

There I stood at 8:00 am waiting for someone, anyone, with a key to unlock the door and give me the chance I had been waiting for, practically since birth. This test was not going to take me down. This was my day—the opportunity to drive a car by myself, my own way, on my terms. Oh, to have that driver’s license that gave me the right, no, the privilege, of driving in this great land of ours called the United States of America. After 60 gut-wrenching minutes of waiting by the glass door, 9:00 AM finally arrived, and the officer came and unlocked the door. Little did he know that he was unlocking my future, my dreams, my goals, and my aspirations. (I’m being really dramatic today!)

I can’t explain to you how long I had waited for this moment to come.

All of my friends already had their driver’s licenses. I was the last one left without a license. There was a countdown on my calendar to this one fateful day. Day after day, I would mark a big black X on the day that had just gone by and pray to God for the next day to go by fast. I anticipated this day more than all the Christmases and birthdays combined, and now the moment had finally come to put up or shut up.

Looking back now, I wish I looked forward to the return of Jesus as much as I did for that August morning to arrive. Why don’t we ever think about that day? I guess we get caught up in this life so much that we sometimes forget that the greatest and most anticipated day should be the return of Jesus to take us home.

The bottom line is that if I lived with the same kind of anticipation that I did when my driver’s test was coming up, my life would be different, and my friends’ and families’ lives would be too. I would be more vocal about my faith. I would be studying my Bible much more intensely. My prayer life would be non-stop. I would be getting ready for His return and trying to help others get ready as well.

We get so hyped up over special days in our lives, weddings, parties, graduation, driver’s license, etc. We plan, prepare, and count down. I wish we would do the same thing when it comes to the return of Jesus. That will be the greatest day of all. Understand this:

WHATEVER IT IS YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO TODAY CONTROLS HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE IN THE FUTURE.

If our focus, our attention, our dreams are on the greatest day ahead (the return of Jesus), we just might be living the kind of life that would make God very, very proud. What is your focus on? What are you looking forward to?

Time Out:

In my life my focus is on _______.

By having this focus, am I heading more toward temporary or eternal things?

There are only three things that last forever: people’s souls, God, and the Bible. How much of your typical day is focused on these three things?

Look up 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. If you are alive when Jesus returns, picture in your mind what you would see.

Picture in your mind all of your friends and relatives that you know for sure are going with Jesus when He returns. Now picture in your mind all of those who you know that don’t have a relationship with Jesus, that won’t be going. What are you going to do about that?

If you truly believed and focused on the fact that Jesus could return tomorrow, would you live your life differently today? How? (By the way, I got an 80% on the written and a 93% on the driving. All the preparation and anticipating paid off. Now, if we could all apply that same passion to eternal things, what a difference we could make!)

TALK TO GOD
In your prayer time today, use the following outline to help you talk to God.

PRAISE GOD. Thank God for who He is.

REPENT. Confess any known sins to God and ask for His forgiveness.

ASK. Tell Him about your needs and requests.

YIELD. Tell Him that you want His will, His plan, and His purpose for each area of your life.