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Read: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
Listen: 1 Thessalonians 4

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

It isn’t long after the church in Thessalonica begins that the early Jesus followers have questions about how the world is going to end. They ask questions like: When will it happen? How will it happen? How can we know we are getting close? It appears this is a topic the Apostle Paul teaches about regularly. While they still have questions, one thing is sure: Jesus will return! There will be a second coming. This momentous, massively significant event will kick off the end times, the end of all things. Jesus’s return was the hope Paul wanted them to cling to.

We are two thousand years closer to Jesus’s return and have the same questions. This passage provides us with hope and encouragement that Jesus is coming back and that we should be ready. While many things about the end times are debated, the certain truth we cling to is that Jesus will return!

TODAY: How can you prepare for Jesus’s return? In your journal, answer these questions: If you knew Jesus was coming back in one year, what would look different in your life? What would you stop doing? What would you start? What would you keep doing? Ask God for the grace to put these things into practice now.