2 Peter 3:10-12  ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

¹¹ Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹² waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! – ESV 

These verses kind of put some things into perspective. When we lose sight of the fact that the Lord will return some day, and that everything will change on that day, we can easily get caught up in materialism and temporal satisfactions. 

What Sort Of People Ought We To Be?

But even knowing He will return, is not enough. There is still the question of what sort of people we ought to be in light of it. Many people know of His return, but push it to the back of their minds and hope they’ll live a full life without Jesus interrupting them half way through it with His return and all the hardships that will lead up to it. That’s been me at times, I have to admit. 

But, if we truly love Him, we will have the proper response as Peter lays out, here. It will inspire us to holy living, waiting for and hastening His coming. Are we doing those things? 

Are we willing to keep His return in the forefront of our minds? It goes against our natural minds to do so. But, if we do, we will also remember that His return will be followed by judgement. This is the part that spurs us on to holiness and godly living.

 But, beyond even keeping His return foremost with holiness and godliness—fulfilling the waiting part—we are also to hasten His coming. 

Hastening His Coming

First of all, to even want to hasten His coming takes a shunning of this age—this corrupt and cursed world—and even our own lives. We must know deeply that what He will bring with Him is much better than what we already have if we are surrendered to Him in love. 

Next, we face the question of how practically to go about hastening His coming. How can we possibly make Jesus come sooner? I’m not sure if we can actually make Him come sooner or not. I suppose that’s probably not the primary point. 

Following are a few definitions for the Greek word translated hastening: to urge on, to await eagerly and to make with haste unto. It seems the biggest part of it is that our desires are for Him to come soon. If that is our desire, I suppose we will naturally urge Him to come in our prayers and make with haste unto Him in our hearts as we eagerly await Him.  

Eagerly Waiting For Him

Hebrews 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. – ESV 

This is a simple statement, not even a command. When the Lord returns He will be saving those who are eagerly waiting for Him. At all times of history we should be close enough to the Lord to be eagerly awaiting Him. 

But, I think it will come pretty naturally for all believers by the time we are in the season of His coming. Perhaps the suffering and hardship that will come on the world and especially Jews and Christians, will be for that exact purpose. To finally divorce our affections completely from this world and to fix them on the world to come. 

When this happens, the Lord can return and expect a warm welcome from His people. Perhaps this is ultimately what it means to hasten His coming. To spread a welcome mat and encourage others to do the same.