---

“In Just a Little While”

Excerpted from Sifted: Diary of a Grieving Mother by Karen Harmening

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a [hope] both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil”

Hebrews 6:19

I awoke early this morning with a heavy heart for some dear fellow sojourners on this painful path of child loss. While weeping and interceding for them I was reminded of the significance of today’s date and the thousands of others who bear the anguish of death with us as a result of the atrocities of September 11, 2001. It is now eighteen years later, but I am certain many of them are weary today as the sorrow of the absence of their loved ones remains ever-present.

Recently, as my wrestling with my own weariness was compounded by the weight of weariness I see in my precious brothers and sisters in suffering, I found encouragement in the last chapter of Revelation.

Christ concludes His Revelation by saying three times that He is coming quickly.

And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. (Rev. 22:7)

Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward [is] with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. (Rev. 22:12)

He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. (Rev. 22:20)

Paul echoed the same truth of His imminent return.

For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. (Heb. 10:37 NIV)

Habakkuk spoke similarly of the certainty of God doing all that He has promised.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. (Hab. 2:3)

In the midst of crippling and consuming sorrow, as we gasp for each breath, the path ahead can appear endlessly long and barrenly bleak. Weariness can quickly and easily give way to hopelessness.

Our omniscient and compassionate Lord and Savior sees and knows our frailty and weakness and speaks to it directly as He reminds us repeatedly that He is coming quickly. Reminders of the hope of His imminent return are ever so graciously given to shore up weak, weary and faltering faith.

Peter implored us to “fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” and Christ is reminding us repeatedly that the fulfillment of that hope is coming soon, quickly, in just a little while (1 Pet. 1:13).

He is calling us to intentionally and purposefully fix our hope like an anchor on the gracious promises that will be delivered to us, His children, upon His imminent return. Sin, sorrow, and death will be no more, every tear will be wiped away, and we who believe will abide with Him forever… soon, quickly, in just a little while.

As we hold to that anchor of hope, purposefully fixed on His imminent return, we are called and equipped to persevere. The reminders of His imminent return are always accompanied by exhortations to persevere—living expectantly for His promised and certain return.

…we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a [hope] both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,  where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us… (Heb. 6:18-20)

FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY.  BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. (Heb. 10:37-39)

The reminder that He is coming soon revives us to serve with perseverance and diligence. Through His blood, our precious Savior rescued us who believe from our sin and eternal death, and gloriously made a way for the world, our loved ones, and us to spend eternity with Him and one another. He is coming back soon, quickly, in just a little while, and I want to be found faithful by Him (John 3:16).

The enemy will continue to cruelly and relentlessly taunt, “saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet. 3:4). But we, being “strengthened with all power according to His glorious might,” can persevere by holding “unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Col. 1:11; Heb. 10:23).

Hold on, dear weary one, to the anchor of your hope purposefully fixed firmly and securely on the grace to be brought to us at His coming, for He is certainly coming soon, quickly, in just a little while. “Come, Lord Jesus.”