Expectation

(10)  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
(11)  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
(12)  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
(13)  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

2 Peter 3:10-13

Explanation:
Over the last couple of posts we have been studying Isaiah 65:17-25. In that passage we learned that there are 3 results of God’s future plans for us that should give us hope today. The result of God’s plans are joy, abundance, and peace. You can read about those by clicking each of those three results.
The question that believers should ask in response to these future results is this: How should we live now because of what will happen then? How shall we then live? This question is expressed by Peter when he says,

“(11)  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, (12)  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”

I want to answer this question by talking about two responses we should have to God’s future for us.
The first response is one of expectation.
Peter tells us that “the day of the Lord” will come “as a thief in the night”. Thieves do not like to come when they are expected, but when they are unexpected. A thief comes at night because he wants to be covert. He doesn’t want to be seen by the neighbors. He also comes at night because He doesn’t want the people in the home that he is robbing to be awake and catch him. We can not attribute these motives to God. Why? Because He has revealed Himself and tells us that He is coming back. He commands us to tell everyone about the death, burial, resurrection, and imminent return of His Son Jesus.

Yet at the same time, what is the comparison? When Christ comes back many will not expect it. For those who know Him as Savior we should expect Him to come back. We should show that expectation through living a life of holiness and godliness. We should live looking forward to the “coming of the day of God”.

How should we live? We should live like every material thing on this earth is going to go away, because that is exactly what will happen. Peter reminds us that “the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat…”. And to replace it, we look for the coming promises of God. We “look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” That sounds a lot like God’s promise in Isaiah 65:7 where he said, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”

Application:
You have two investment opportunities. One investment will yeild a return for a time, but eventually everything you invested and made on the investment will go away. The other investment will bring an exponential return some day and it will never go away. Which investment would you make? You’d be crazy to not invest in the second option.

This is exactly the scenario we find ourselves in. God is coming back. We do not know when but it could be at any time. Everything we do in this life will either matter for eternity or will melt with a fervent heat. C.T. Studd said it this way:

Only one life, yes only one,
Now let me say,”Thy will be done”;
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;
Only one life,’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

C.T. Studd

Those who make the right investment are the ones who remember the brevity of life, and who believe that Christ could come back at any time.

Response:
Let’s live out lives of earnest expectation. Could it be today? Take some time today to invest in eternity!