For many years, the Rapture has been reserved as the “old folks” belief and hope.  We have all heard about saints and children that would be in heaven; children because of their innocence and the elders who have spent their lives serving Christ. 

The observable signs of the times have changed that idea.  How bad does this world have to be for a twenty-two year old young man to ask, “Is it wrong to pray for the Rapture?”  With nothing else to hold on to, except Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Struggling for survival to move out into the world on their own, the odds seem to be stacked against the young and their future.  Integrity is one of the hardest things to find in the education system, business world, marriage, and even in supposedly Christian organizations.  Who do you trust when the consensus is “all about me” – doing whatever, walking on whomever (always teetering for a fall) to claw a shameful way to the top?

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:        2 Timothy 4:7  - once meant that one had lived their life to the fullness of God – Christ first, burden for family and fellowman, doing the right thing, working with all diligence, and satisfied that in their last days there was no fear of meeting their Creator.  Life’s race today is simply walking over God and anyone who just happens to be in the way of one’s success; so that they can proudly boast of “Look at what I did all on my own.  I don’t need God or anyone else. I am invincible.”  However, once fallen, that will be the deepest plunge a soul can ever take – a most likely point of no return.

Make no mistake in believing that God has forsaken his own.  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:19  God has not changed his mind in whatever He has called you to do.  Blinded to all that is around us, we press forward knowing that Christ awaits at the end and that all in between is in God’s perfect plan and perfect timing – right up until that moment when the trumpet sounds.

There is no probability of ever going back to the “good old days.”  Things appear to be almost too far gone.  The “waxing worse and worse” is an everyday reality.  Unmerited promises are continually being made to forecast a brighter future.  But, as a pastor recently stated, “It is like rearranging the life boats on the Titanic.”  The world is going to continue to sink into the depths of sin and hell.  Some will perish for all eternity.  Some will be rescued.  And, in the end the big and notable monstrosities of this world that were once so prestigious and important will lay at the feet of God – a crumpled man-made heap of nothing.   

The only things of worth are those things that Christ deems worthy – the little validating things that you were hesitant to do because it seemed so small; the dirty and smelly vagrant that you hugged just because no one else would; the smile you gave to a person being exceptionally rude because you do not know what is going on in that life; giving to someone because no one has ever given them anything before; and above all never, ever counting the cost.  Everything Christ did was free – yet everything Christ did was, is, and will always be priceless. 

 

Praying for the Rapture is not wrong and should be our prayer.  However, far more important is the prayer that we have lived everyday as if it was the last and also as if it was the first.  In doing so, there you will find absolute joy, laughter, and utter peace that baffles the depressed souls living in a seemingly hopeless world.