When we talk about the end of the world and what that will look like and what's going to happen, two groups of people emerge:

There's a group of excited people who are confident that we can all figure out everything that's going to happen and connect all the dots about the apocalypse.

Then there's another group who is scared to death, they don't want to talk about the end of the world. "Oh, let's don't go here!" 

God doesn't want us to fear the end of the world. 

Did you know that everytime the end of the world is mentioned in Scripture, it says, "Be encouraged."

Therefore, encourage one another.

The idea of the last days is actually supposed to make us really excited and encouraging to one another.

The end of the world is about changing us now.

In Scripture, the future is always told to change our present.

The men who wrote scripture, they weren't really concerned about our charts and our curiosity. They were concerned about our character.

Whether in the Old Testament prophets or in the New Testament, the writers wrote about what lie ahead to change how you might wake up and act today.

This is especially true when it comes to prayer.

Ultimately, when we think about the end of the world, when we think about the last days, it should lead us to pray, and it should lead us to pray, "Come, Lord Jesus."

Do you pray: Come, Lord Jesus?

Do you long to see Him?

When I started thinking about this prayer, I thought back to a small group experience my wife and I had many years ago. There was a lady who had just become a grandparent. She was in her fifties and was experiencing the joy of being a grandmother. She called me out right in the middle of the group discussion and said,

"You don't believe that. You don't pray, come Lord Jesus. You're a young man who's just had his first kid and in a young marriage and you're enjoying life and you've got plans for the future, you wanna be a pastor.

How in the world can you have all of that and pray, come Lord Jesus?"

Now, while it's absolutely true that the longer you live on this earth, the more you go through, the more suffering you deal with the more likely you are to sincerely pray "Come, Lord Jesus." But it should be true for all of us regardless of our age or circumstances.

The fact is, if you have the Spirit of Christ living within you, and you hear the prayer, Come, Lord Jesus, an AMEN! should swell up in your heart.

And you should pray, Come, Lord Jesus.

I was able to share with her that despite my circumstances, despite my marriage, despite my children, that I had something I longed for even more. I had a greater hope. I still long for things to be made right.

Then I started thinking then about a young man named Alfred.

Before I went to seminary, I spent two years as an assistant teacher at a charter school for at-risk children in a really rough, really hard part of Memphis. During my time there, Alfred was in kindergarten and in first grade. My role was to come by Alfred and the other kids and help teach them how to read, help them learn math, show the boys what being a man looked like.

And then I left for seminary in Louisville. A few years went by and Christmas morning, I woke up, and on my Facebook feed, I find out that Alfred had been killed when he and his brothers played with a gun they found in their house.

 I think about Alfred in a world where that happens and I pray, Come, Lord Jesus. 

Many of you are in the midst of suffering. You're going through it. But even those of you who are not, look around, turn on the news, and then you'll start to feel the weight, and feel your spirit pray,

Come, Lord Jesus.

Marriages falling apart, loved ones lost, martyrs in Iraq, earthquakes in Nepal.

Come, Lord Jesus.

That's where we find ourselves in Luke 18. Jesus has been talking about the coming of his kingdom. There's going to be wickedness and injustice and suffering, but he is coming back to make all things right. So Jesus tells his disciples a parable. He tells them a story so that they would always pray and not lose heart.  

Jesus knows that we're going to face increasing levels of suffering and pain and hurt. And he knows it's going to feel like when we pray that it feels like God's not there. What are we going to do?  

Jesus tells us the story so that we will not lose hope and that we will keep on praying.

We need to keep praying.

And here's why:

Your prayer life, shows you what you really believe and who you really are.

Your prayer life teaches you about your character.

Your prayer life speaks about our theology.

Your prayer life indicates what you believe about your identity in Christ.

"So brother pray in spite of Satan, pray, spend hours in prayer, rather neglect friends than not pray, rather fast and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper, and sleep too than not pray. And we must not just talk about prayer, we must pray. The Lord is near. No matter what situation you're facing, no matter what trials and evil and wickedness and suffering that you're going through, we need to be praying, come Lord, Jesus." ~Andrew Bonar

What does your prayer life say about your character?

What does your prayer life say about your theology? What does your prayer life say about your identity? In these last days, we need to keep on praying and not lose heart. So let us take the words of Andrew Bonar to heart and not just talk about and preach about and hear about prayer, but let us pray.

This post is part of Pastor Jeremiah Nichols's mini series from the book of Luke entitled, When Jesus Gets in the Way: Three Sermons from Luke on Mercy, Prayer, and New Life, collected HERE.