When You Grow Tired of Waiting

Remember, take action, and return to your first love

Waiting is hard. I know many of you pay close attention to world events. You see conflict between Iran and Israel and it makes you wonder, “Is the Rapture near?”

You see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sorrow and suffering breaks your heart, but you also feel slightly hopeful. You wonder, “Is the Rapture near?”

You hear about inflation and corruption and violence and food shortages and all the problems in today’s world. Those must be the birth pains Jesus spoke of. You wonder, “Is the Rapture near?”

I’ve had the same thoughts. I’ve asked the same questions.

But still we wait.

Sometimes it’s hard to maintain a fiery, passionate faith when the events you expect to happen—in the twinkling of an eye—haven’t happened yet.

A few weeks or months ago your faith was fired up. Today, the flame seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

I understand.

The Church in Ephesus

In the first century, Jesus had a message for the Church in Ephesus. These were the believers who received the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul wrote that they had great “faith in the Lord Jesus” and admirable love for the people of God. He encouraged them and reminded them of the importance of living lives that stand out from the rest of the culture.

Ephesians is where Paul wrote how the Spirit helps us understand how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, compared marriage to Christ’s relationship to the Church, and taught about the importance of putting on the “Armor of God.” It’s one of my favorite books in the New Testament.

But when Jesus spoke to the Church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, they seemed to be struggling:

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”—Revelation 2:2-5

They were being patient. They had persevered. They had been doing God’s work and trying not to become weary. But the relationship wasn’t what it used to be. They had begun to fall away.

Jesus gave them a plan to restore the relationship, and it starts with this: Remember, repent, and do the deeds you did at first.

Love is Action

Passion ebbs and flows in every human relationship. It happens in marriage. It happens with a workplace or career. And it also happens with God.

New Christians tend to be passionate. That’s when our relationship with God is fresh and bold, and we’re willing to do almost anything to serve Christ. We’ll seek God at every opportunity.

However, as time goes by, other things begin to compete for our attention. Inevitably we will give in to those pressures. We soon find ourselves cooling off toward God.

Is this just a necessary way to mature as a Christian? I don’t think so, because Jesus called it the sin of “losing your first love for Him.” The reason we lost that first love is because we stopped working at the relationship.

What’s the solution? Notice that Jesus doesn’t tell us to try to conjure up old emotions in order to restore the relationship—as if we could squint our eyes and really, really try to be more excited or passionate—because He knows emotion isn’t at the core of true love.

The word used most often in the New Testament for “love” is the Greek word agape, which means “a commitment to do what is right for someone else regardless of emotions.” The most powerful kind love isn’t something we feel. It’s something we do. True love is a commitment. 

Feelings can be wonderful, but they are unreliable. Feelings change, but right and wrong do not change. Blessing and security are only available when we do what is right regardless of our feelings.

That’s why Jesus commanded the Ephesians to recall their actions at the beginning of their commitment to Him, when their love was intense. He didn’t tell them to remember how they felt. He wanted them to remember what they did:

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works…” (Revelation 2:5).

Always Abounding

How does this apply to the end times? I know many of you are waiting—patiently, expectantly—for the Rapture. With so many prophesied events coming to pass in our world, you’ve been in a state of expectation for so long that you’ve started to feel like you’re losing the spark. Maybe you’re frustrated. Maybe you’re disappointed. Maybe you’re just tired of waiting.

You haven’t lost your faith or your love for God. But maybe you’re losing your hope.

Like the Church at Ephesus, you have persevered but the feelings are fading. Your excitement about the future has declined. The urgency of your desire to tell others about Jesus has diminished.

In Revelation, Jesus gives us instructions for reigniting the spark and returning to our first love. It’s to remember the things we were doing when the passion burned the brightest.

We were reading Scripture.

We were praying.

We were telling others about Jesus.

We were studying, talking to friends and family, serving our church or our community, and thinking about the glorious future that awaits us.

When your feelings change and the excitement wanes, Jesus says the best way to get them back is to remember and “do the first works.”

Think back, remember those actions, and start doing those things again.

That’s what Jesus said, but Paul echoed that teaching in another one of his letters, his first one to the Corinthian church. Right after sharing about the Rapture and the last trumpet, he offered these words of encouragement:

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.—1 Corinthians 15:58

Again: Keep doing “the work of the Lord.” Be steadfast. Continue being obedient. Don’t let the culture or world events get you down.

Patient and Persevering

The Rapture is still the next major prophetic event. We are still living in the season of the end times. Our world is still at a tipping point, and world events are still unfolding. The chaos, violence and rebellion of today’s culture will likely keep getting worse.

Even so, God is in control. God is still faithful. God is still asking us to persevere and wait patiently, to trust His timing and trust His heart. The pieces are in place, but we’re not quite there yet.

Don’t lose hope. Return to your first love, and remember your labor is never in vain.