Living In The Light

December 1, Waiting And Watching

Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. —1 Thessalonians 5:6 LL 353.1

We anticipate the solemn event. We are not, because we are in the attitude of waiting and watching, to be indolent, doing nothing. But as we view the great event of Christ’s coming, and as we see the necessity of watching and waiting for it, we must unite zeal and diligent industry to our waiting and watching. A life of idleness or mere meditation and abstraction, will not answer for the waiting, watching ones. Neither will it be safe or justifiable for the waiting, watching ones to become so busy in worldly matters that they cease to watch and forget their peculiar position as waiting ones. They should not be in a busy excitement like worldlings and become surfeited and drunken with the cares of this life. A drunken person is bewildered. The fine organs of the brain are beclouded. This is exactly the position of professed Christians who allow the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches to have such a powerful influence upon them as to eclipse the attractions of heaven. They become insane in their worldly pursuit.
—Letter 21a, 1871. LL 353.2

Everyone who is asleep is subject to strange illusions. Judgment is not preserved; fancy holds control of the brain. Sleepy Christians are subject to just such strange imaginings. They have not clear ideas; they have not clear judgment. Strange thoughts come, which they never had before. Strange doubts crowd into the mind. The old landmarks seem indistinct and strange. Once they held to the pillars of the faith with a firm hand, but now their hands are slipping off. Pride and love of ambition possess the mind. There is a flattering of self that they are “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” while exactly the opposite is the condition of the church. LL 353.3

The Lord is coming. “Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day.” “Yourselves know perfectly [should you arouse from your spiritual stupor] that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:6, 5, 2). Oh, that the church in Battle Creek would know that the day of the Lord is right upon them! He will come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Will any of us wish to be sleeping when the Lord comes?
—Letter 29, 1882. LL 353.4

Further Reflection: : How do you wait and watch for Christ’s soon return? LL 353.5