What do you look forward to with excitement? Do you get in a frenzy expecting your favorite team to win the Super Bowl? Perhaps you are anticipating a new child or grandchild and that brings a smile to your face. Maybe you are looking forward to a soldier returning home from deployment. It could be the joy of a new car or house.
All of those things are worthy of joyful anticipation. They fill our hearts with excitement . They bring positive feelings and a hopeful outlook for the future.
When the apostle Paul was working with and training Titus, he wrote a letter to his young apprentice. In this letter Paul made a statement that excites me about past, present and future things. Titus 2:11-14 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and bodly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
Wow! There is a lot of truth and many promises in those verses. Let me talk about just a few. In the PAST, God’s grace appeared bringing salvation and redemption. In the Present, God is training us to live godly and upright lives and making us zealous to do good works. In the future, our blessed hope will be fulfilled when Jesus returns and gathers us to himself.
Now those are things to be truly excited about. I shout HALLELUJAH! Glory to God!
Reluctant Retiree 