May 2, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world." — John 17:15 · KJV

There is a sweet and blessed event awaiting every believer in God's own time: the going home to be with Jesus. In a few more years the Lord's soldiers, now fighting "the good fight of faith," will be finished with conflict and will have entered into the joy of their Lord. But although Christ prays that His people may at last be with Him where He is, He does not ask that they be taken out of this world to heaven immediately. He wants them to stay here. How often the weary pilgrim breathes the prayer, "O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest." Christ does not pray that way. He leaves us in His Father's hands until, like sheaves of grain fully ripe, we are each gathered into our Master's barn. Jesus does not plead for our instant removal by death, for remaining in the body is needful for others even when it is not profitable for us. He asks that we may be kept from evil, but He never asks that we be admitted to the inheritance in glory before we come of age. Christians often want to die whenever trouble arrives. Ask them why, and they say, "Because we would be with the Lord." I suspect it is not so much a longing for the Lord as a wish to be rid of their troubles; otherwise they would feel the same desire at other times, when no trial is pressing on them. They want to go home less for the Savior's company than for the relief. Now it is entirely right to desire to depart if we can do it in Paul's spirit, because to be with Christ is far better; but the wish merely to escape hardship is a selfish one. Let your concern and your desire rather be to glorify God by your life here as long as He pleases, even in the midst of toil and conflict and suffering, and leave it to Him to say when it is enough.