Daily Devotions From Greg Laurie

O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? (Psalm 13:1 NLT)

Christians have been asking variations of David’s question for two thousand years: How long, O Lord, will You delay Your return? How much worse does the world have to get? How many more prophecies must be fulfilled? How long will You make us wait?

As the apostles watched Jesus ascend to Heaven, two angels joined them. “‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!’” (Acts 1:11 NLT).

And the waiting began.

There’s no question about what’s going to happen. The Second Coming of Jesus is mentioned more than 1,800 times in the Old Testament and 300 times in the New Testament. One out of every 25 verses in the Bible mentions the Lord’s return.

Jesus said, “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (John 14:3 nlt).

The question is, how do you feel about it?

Charles Spurgeon said, “The sound of His approach should be as music to our ears.” When you think about Christ’s coming, your heart should jump with excitement. If, instead, you feel dread or indifference, I would wonder where you are spiritually. The teaching of the imminent return of Jesus is a great barometer of your walk with God. When you’re right with God, you look forward to Christ’s return.

In fact, anticipating His return has a purifying effect on you spiritually. First John 3:3 says, “All who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure” (NLT).

Jesus is coming again. It’s our blessed hope. We live in a world filled with bad news. And you can find it 24/7 on the newsfeed of your choice. War is imminent. Our nation is unraveling. AI is making us rethink what’s real. It’s enough to stress out anyone.

But what did Jesus say? “So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!” (Luke 21:28 NLT).

Don’t panic. Look up.

The scary stories we see on the news are reminders that God keeps His promises and Jesus is coming back again. I’ve read the last page of the Bible. We win in the end.

Are you ready? Are you living in anticipation of Jesus’ return by honoring and trusting God and putting Him first? Are you sharing the gospel whenever you have the chance? Are you living the life God has called you to live?

We may have many years left before Jesus returns. Or we may have a few. The timing is in God’s hands. Our job is to make every day count for the glory of God until then.

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But Jesus answered, “Rather, how happy are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Luke 11:28 GNT)

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But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (1 John 1:9 NLT)

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God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. (Psalm 46:1 NLT)

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“But if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23 NLT)

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Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32 NLT)

The flow chart of forgiveness in Scripture is simple. God says to us, “I have given you way more forgiveness than you have any right to expect. Do the same to one another.”

Why do we try to complicate it? Why do we add conditions (“if you do this, then I will forgive you”)? God didn’t appoint us gatekeepers of forgiveness. He doesn’t let us decide who’s worthy of it. And He certainly doesn’t authorize us to weaponize forgiveness, to withhold it out of spite or revenge.

Of course, that doesn’t stop us from trying.

Once, I tried to withhold forgiveness from my abusive stepfather. Years after he and my mother divorced, I was preaching in Honolulu, near where he lived. Someone told me he was very sick and asked if I’d like to talk to him. I said, “No, thank you.” The memory of his physical abuse of my mother was still too fresh.

The Holy Spirit had other ideas. “Talk to him,” He said. So I did. I don’t know what impact our conversation had on my stepfather, but I’m glad I listened to the Holy Spirit. He helped me see that conditional forgiveness isn’t God’s forgiveness.

Peter learned the same lesson. In Matthew 18:21, he asks, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” (NLT). He probably thought he was being extra-generous. After all, Jewish tradition required a person to forgive a wrongdoer no more than three times for an offense. Jesus’ reply, “No, not seven times . . . but seventy times seven!” (Matthew 18:22 NLT), showed Peter just how far off the mark he was.

Peter wanted to maintain some authority over his forgiving. He was willing to do it Jesus’ way up to seven times. But after that, he wanted to dispense forgiveness and justice as he saw fit.

We do the same thing when we say, “I can forgive anything but lying” or “You can’t expect me to forgive someone who ruined my life.” We convince ourselves that we’re being generous with our forgiveness if we withhold just a little from the worst people.

Jesus’ reply makes it clear that those options aren’t on the table. Jesus says, in essence, “You should forgive every chance you get.”

Peter might as well have asked, “How many times should God forgive us?” Because in Ephesians 4:32, God connects our forgiveness of others with His forgiveness of us. He wants us to remember how His forgiveness changed our lives. How it lifted an enormous weight from our shoulders. How it rescued us from the emotional effects of guilt and shame. How it gave us hope for the future. How it made a loving relationship possible with the One we hurt.

God wants other people to experience those things through our forgiveness. In His amazing generosity, He gives us a chance to be instruments of change in other people’s lives. Forgiveness isn’t a challenge or a test of our patience and understanding. It’s an opportunity to show others on a small scale what God offers on an eternal scale.

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And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. (John 3:19 NLT)

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“God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17 NLT)

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“Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14 NLT)

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“For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31 NLT)

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