God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11
Dear heavenly Father, there’re some appointments I dread like the Black Plague… others I tolerate like slow traffic… a few I simply forget… others I celebrate as the highlight of my week. But there is one appointment on the books that I’m looking forward to with mounting joy and with exponential gratitude.
In your sovereign grace and quintessential kindness, you’ve booked me for the Day of salvation in Jesus… you have counted me among those upon whom you have set your eternal affections in Christ… you’ve guaranteed, that come “hell or high water,” I am yours, now and forever. The salvation you generated within me, and in each of your children, will be brought to completion on the Day of Christ Jesus. That’s an inviolate appointment that you’ve made and signed with the indelible grace of the gospel—the blood of the Lamb.
Lord Jesus, how I praise you for your tender mercies and measureless sacrifice. For you gladly took the appointment of wrath on the cross—sustaining the judgment we (I) deserve… enduring the suffering for our (my) sins… paying the penalty we (I) owe. And you did it all so that whether we are “awake or asleep”—alive or dead, we might be with you.
Jesus, that you actually want us and want us to be with you is overwhelming… Indeed, this is love, not that we loved you, but that you first loved us and gave yourself as a sacrifice of atonement and propitiation for our sins.
In this light of this good news and this unbreakable appointment, consistently use me as a source of encouragement in the lives of my brothers and sisters. By the quickening work of the Holy Spirit, make it obvious to me who needs a call today… a note… a face-to-face visit… a word of hope… earnest prayer for very present struggles, doubts and fears. So very Amen, I pray, in your kind and compassionate name.
