What Are You Waiting For?

1 John 5:12

By Kendall Lowe

What are you waiting on? What are you working towards? What are you worrying about? These are questions that plague human being from the moment we start realizing we are a part of this world. Some of us think about one more than the others. For the younger generations, these questions apply to their education. From grade school to high school to college and beyond. Young people are constantly looking forward to what is about to come. Even now that I’ve finished college I have moments where I begin to look ahead to what further education I might attempt. For older generations these questions probably apply to jobs or families. We’re never sure if the job we have is “the” job, or if the house we bought is “the” house. We are looking ahead to what comes next and wondering about the security of it all. And for the oldest of generations, it might be that thoughts are directed towards the end. How much longer do I have and did I do what I wanted in the time I was given? Nobody at any age wants to think about their life ceasing, but the further we get the more of a reality it seems to be.

For a Christian, these questions apply to all of those things, but something else becomes a part of our wondering as well. Eternity. There’s something more. This isn’t all there is. But it’s not here yet. We are waiting on it. We also wonder if we’re qualified for it. We are working for it. And sometimes we don’t know if we are qualified. We are worrying about it.

John uses some interesting wording when talking about this at the end of his first book. He says in chapter 5 in both verses 11 and 12 “God has given us eternal life” and “Whoever has the Son has life”. It’s interesting to me that he doesn’t say “God will give us eternal life” or “Whoever has the Son will have life”. John seems to be speaking of something that is here and now, not about the future.

Whoever has the Son has eternal life. You don’t need to wait for it, because it begins the moment you believe. You don’t need to work for it, because it is already yours through grace. You don’t need to worry about it, because you have been given eternal life by God himself – and it is guaranteed to those who are in Him. So let’s spend less time looking at the future. Let’s focus our eyes on the here and now, Because we already have the gift of eternal life today. And there are some people today who don’t.