Waiting on God and waiting for His Son were both initiated in view of the other and cannot be separated. Waiting on God for His presence and power in our daily life is the only true preparation for waiting for Christ in humility and true holiness. Waiting for Christ’s coming to take us to heaven gives waiting on God its tone of hopefulness and joy. The Father, who in His own time will reveal His Son from heaven, is the God who, as we wait on Him, prepares us for the revelation of His Son. This present life and the coming glory are inseparably connected in God and in us.
“Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:12–13, NKJV) is one of the great bonds uniting God’s church throughout the ages. “He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe” (2 Thessalonians 1:10, NKJV). Then we will all meet, and the unity of the body of Christ will be seen in its divine glory. It will be the meeting place and the satisfaction of God’s love: Jesus receiving His people and presenting them to the Father; His people meeting Him and worshiping Him as never before; His people meeting each other in the bond of God’s love. Let us wait, long for, and love the appearing of our Lord and heavenly Bridegroom.
Tender love to Him and to each other is the true and only bridal spirit. Jesus refuses to accept our love unless it is expressed also to His disciples. Waiting for His coming means waiting for the glorious unity of the body while we attempt to maintain that unity in humility and love here on earth. Those who love most are the most ready for His coming.
(Excerpted from The Andrew Murray Reader in Today’s Language, pg. 250)
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Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)
Brother Andrew Murray was a well-known writer/preacher in South Africa who ministered amongst the Dutch Reformed churches. His writings now are widely accepted by modern evangelicals and he is published more than ever in his life-time.Some of his better known books titles are: "Abide In Christ", "Absolute Surrender," and "Humility." His burden for the body of Christ were teachings on the abiding Spirit of Christ in the believer, the life of faith with God daily, and the life of intercession and prayer in the Church.
Andrew Murray was possibly the strongest spokesman of the Philadelphian age to expound the Body's necessity to abide in Christ, like the Apostle John before him.
Murray was born into a family of four children in the then remote Graaff-Reinet region (near the Cape) of South Africa. Educated in Scotland, which was followed by theological studies in Holland, Andrew returned to his native land to work as a missionary and minister. Given the daunting task of ministering to Bloemfontein, a remote region of 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people beyond the Orange River, Murray already began to sense the need to for the "deeper Christian life".
Though successful in preaching and bringing many to Christ, Murray found many of his greatest lessons in the School of Suffering, as will all who follow in the path of obedience.
Andrew Murray was one of four children born to Pastor Andrew, Sr., and Maria Murray. He was raised in what was considered to be the most remote corner of the world - Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Educated in Scotland and Holland, in 1848 Andrew, Jr., returned to South Africa as a missionary and minister with the Dutch Reformed Church. His first appointment was to Bloemfontein, a territory of nearly 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people.
Andrew and his brother John had been in close contact with a revival movement in Scotland, an evangelical extension of the ongoing Second Great Awakening in America. He prayed for the same sort of awakening for the church in South Africa and wrote, "My prayer is for revival, but I am held back by the increasing sense of my own unfitness for the work. I lament the awful pride and self complacency that have till now ruled my heart. O that I may be more and more a minister of the Spirit." (J. du Plessis, The Life of Andrew Murray)
In 1860, revival did come to the churches of Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently spread to surrounding towns and villages. Even remote farms and plantations felt the impact as lives were changed. Where once the churches had not been able to find one man ready to be a leader for God, the revival raised up 50 in Murray's Cape Town parish alone. There were more conversions in one month in that parish than in the whole course of its previous history. (Leona Choy, Andrew Murray: Apostle of Abiding Love)
Greatly concerned for the spiritual guidance of new converts and renewed Christians, Andrew Murray wrote over 240 books. His writings reflect his own longing for a deeper life in Christ and his prayer that others would long for and experience that life as well.