Excited Anticipation or Fearful Dread?

(The following is the November 22 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read 1 John 2 and pay close attention to verses 28-29.)

My grandchildren eagerly show me things they recently made whenever we visit. They’re proud of their accomplishments and can’t wait to share them. I gladly affirm their creations as I did with our sons growing up, whose art always covered our refrigerator, fireplace mantel, and other places.

In contrast, children dread when a parent or authority figure arrives if they have misbehaved. They fear the consequences and are ashamed of their actions. Many scolded children have heard the dreaded, “Just wait until your <insert authority figure here> gets home.” Our dog even acts this way, running to us, wagging her tail (good), or approaching slowly with her head low and tail between her legs (bad, so we’d better look around for whatever she chewed up).

John told his readers, “So now, little children, remain in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (v. 28). Believers want to live such that we will rejoice at the sight of Jesus coming. We should be like a child who has waited, looking out the window, anticipating the parent’s return. We dare not live in ways that cause us to “be ashamed before him at his coming,” whether in the long-term pattern of our lives or any moment’s behavior since we don’t know when he’ll come again.

We live as we should if we “remain in him.” Jesus told his disciples the same: “Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me” (John 15:4-5).

Next Step:

We remain in Christ through spiritual disciplines like Bible study, prayer, worship, fellowship, and service. Which of these disciplines demands your attention to better remain in Christ?