Man am I dense!

I finally got it!  Just this morning after 34 years of saying it, I finally got it!  It's often referred to as the common table prayer and most of us know it as - Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. Some add to the end and that's cool but the first three words have never really had much meaning to me. Honestly the prayer was always about asking God to make the food good enough that I didn't choke to death on it. 

But look again - Come Lord Jesus.  How cool is that!  We're praying in these words for Jesus to come back.  The book of Hebrews (9) is what reminded me of this today.  In 9:26, the writer says - But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Then again at the end of the chapter the writer reminds us that when he comes it won't be to destroy and deal with sin anymore but to bring salvation to those who are waiting. 

So we pray come Lord Jesus.  We want him to return. We pray that Jesus will come back to bring us, to show us, to help us realize that he's done everything necessary to take away our wrongs.  Most Christians would admit that Jesus died and rose to forgive them and give them heaven - blah, blah, blah...but it doesn't seem to sink in!  I know way too many people who say they believe in Jesus but their actions and their words don't really indicate that.  They generally don't go out and live it up. Rather they can't let go of the things they've done wrong. 

How can Jesus forgive our sins if we won't let him forget about them?  How can Jesus remove our sins as far as the east is from the west if we keep running to the east and west to pick them up and beat ourselves up with them?  I'm not saying that we shouldn't be sorry for our wrongs, nor am I saying that there's no need for repentance.  Actually quite the opposite is true.  I believe that we do need to lay these things before God and let him deal with them but we need to leave them there.  God wants us to live our lives with the joy and happiness that comes from knowing that Jesus came once to deal with sin - he forgave it and now because of Jesus' death we are declared innocent before God. 

But he didn't leave us there, forgiven but without a home, no Jesus then rose to give us the promise of heaven to hold onto.  And now Jesus promises to return to give us our salvation, to welcome us home, to bring us back into the family forever.  So we pray...come Lord Jesus!  Some of the last words of the Bible include that very prayer.  Come Lord Jesus! Come Quickly!  So let that prayer be yours today.  Don't hold onto your sins, faults, shortcomings, wrongs, failures, misdeeds, inabilities, and fears - hold onto Jesus.  Hold onto the promise that Jesus is coming back.  Hold onto that common prayer that keeps us ever looking forward - Come Lord Jesus. 

Lord, we pray that you come to us today.  Come to us that we might let go of our pasts and cling to the future that we have in you.  Come Lord Jesus - Come Quickly!  AMEN.