Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
“Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me and understand what He would say unto me.”
Job 23:3-5
Those who are the real Bride of Christ walk in the Spirit and those who walk in the Spirit are praying for Jesus to return and bring judgment to them and to the earth. One of the last verses in the Bible tells us that “the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’” If we are walking in the commandments of God, we can have confidence when we think of Jesus coming back and the Spirit will pray through us for salvation to come.
I love the boldness of faith toward God exhibited by David in Psalm 17:1-3 when he pleaded with God to judge him. And David knew already what God’s judgment would be:
“Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer that does not go out of feigned lips. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. You have proved my heart; you have visited me in the night; you have tried me and shall find nothing. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.”
We see the same confidence in Psalm 139:23-24:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
David was a man just like every other man. He had the same temptations that every other man has, and yet, he chose God over the world, and he knew that he had chosen God. He knew what God would find if God searched his heart, and he was excited about God finding it. This is the kind of confidence that every one of us can have if we make up our minds the way David made up his.
When Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” he was not speaking to everybody. He was only speaking to those who make up their minds completely. The half-hearted find that the way of the Lord is anything but light and easy, but those who are fully committed to Christ find that living a holy life is as natural as breathing, and they have the kind of confidence toward God that King David had.
If God searched your heart, what would He find? Locked chambers, into which He was not allowed to enter or every room open and prepared for His coming?