Keep Ready for a Bright Future
“KEEP ready,” Jesus urged. (Luke 12:40) If we do, when Christ comes “with power and great glory,” we can respond with joy to his command: “Raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”—Luke 21:27, 28.
What kind of deliverance? Why, the kind of deliverance Noah and his family enjoyed—yes, through the end of this world! “The world is passing away,” the apostle John wrote, “but he that does the will of God remains forever.”—1 John 2:17.
In Jehovah’s new world, earthly subjects of the King, Jesus Christ, will enjoy everlasting life. “The righteous themselves will possess the earth,” the Bible says, “and they will reside forever upon it.” (Psalm 37:29) What a marvelous future God promises for his people! “God himself will be with them,” his Word says. “He will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.” This is true prophecy!—Revelation 21:3, 4.
Yet, to enjoy this future, you must act. Obtaining knowledge is the first essential. The Bible explains: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”—John 17:3.
You also need to meet together regularly with the others who are seeking this knowledge, as the apostle urged: “Let us consider one another to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together . . . and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24, 25) Indeed, Jehovah’s people behold the day of deliverance into God’s new world drawing ever closer, and so they have become known for their meeting together.
Commenting on one gathering at a large stadium, the London Sunday Telegraph reported: “There is none of the gloom traditionally associated with those who declare that ‘The End Is Nigh.’ Nigh it may be. In the meantime everyone seems to be enjoying himself in a sober, upright, Godly but cheerful manner.” The paper then added: “If the present world order really is about to break down, the Witnesses at Twickenham seem well prepared to organise the new one.”
Keeping ready means keeping busy, doing a work like that done by Noah, who served in the days before the Flood as “a preacher of righteousness.” (2 Peter 2:5) Keeping ready also means engaging “in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion.” You are invited, yes, urged, to join with Jehovah’s people in “awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah.”—2 Peter 3:11, 12.