Misty Edwards, American worship leader sings a song: ‘Oh how we want you to come!’

Well, I guess many christians would agree with that cry, in principle. But what do we really mean by that? In most of the prayer circles in which I find myself in, our prayers are certainly for the Lord to come. But by that, we tend to mean to come close to us, to help us personally and to change our circumstances. Or we sometimes mean to come near to us, as in a revival move of the Holy Spirit. Yet, we rarely mean asking for His coming again, in glory.

Perhaps christians feel as if ‘come, Lord Jesus’  is not a prayer we should ask for. We are taught that Jesus’ return is firmly within God’s sovereign timing, and not within the realm of our asking. We would feel presumptuous in praying such a prayer.

Perhaps more honestly, we just don’t feel that sense of expectancy or desire for the Lord’s return. We often make our discipleship more of a personal journey and preparation for heaven, and our mission as a gradual spreading of the rule of the kingdom of God.

As a Western church we have lost much of the sense of eschatological urgency that marked the early church. The New Testament letters are filled with exhortations to live in the joyful readiness of Jesus’ coming again. As an example Saint Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, ‘But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.’ (Philippians 3v20&21).

I would encourage us to start praying more with the Lord’s return as a bright goal in our prayers, and as a fervent cry in our hearts. This focus will stir faith expectancy in our hearts, and will encompass all the longing and working for the kingdom we are involved with.

When we ask for Jesus’ coming in the near revival we can set our sights too low. When we ask for his great second coming, we are asking too for all that must precede it – all the personal setting ourselves apart for him, the revivals and harvest, the transformation and crisis, the glory and shaking, and along with it, the transition from the present age to the age to come. I believe the ‘Maranatha’ cry will soon become central again in the prayer life of the church worldwide – ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come!’

God bless, William