My spirit has been unsettled this week, and I’ve had this feeling that I couldn’t put my finger on at first. At first, it resembled anxiety, but as someone who has dealt with plenty of that in the past, this was different. As I prayed and pondered, all that would come to me was the word “urgency”. I realized that I have been experiencing a sense of urgency that I haven’t before, but why?
Like we should for answers, I went to my Bible. Now the word urgency isn’t found in scripture, but the word “urge” is, and there are plenty of statements or requests made with urgency- words urging, begging, pleading, or imploring us to DO something. To narrow it down, I looked specifically at the things that Jesus said, during his time on earth, with a sense of urgency. Yes, the list of these is still long, but it’s actually the first urgent phrase that I came across from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew that I believe the Holy Spirit meant for me to settle on.
“From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.””
Matthew 4:17 NIV
At the time this was spoken, Jesus was beginning his ministry in Galilee after He received word that John the Baptist had been imprisoned. Jesus knew that ministry there must continue. This was in order to fulfill Biblical prophecy from the book of Isaiah stating that the land of Galilee would come to see the “great light” (Jesus himself, it turns out) after years of spiritual darkness that came after devastation by the Assyrian Empire.
The message Jesus went to preach in Galilee was, of course, the Gospel. REPENT. For the kingdom of heaven is near. The message was urgent then and the same message is urgent now.
John’s ministry was silenced, Jesus stepped in to continue the spread of the Good News. We, as Christians today, are called to be like Jesus and do the same. The kingdom of heaven is closer now than it’s ever been, and there’s an urgency to share the gospel that should be calling Christians to action.
God’s word tells us that no one knows the day or the time, but my spirit is crying out to me that we’re running out of time.
Bold Words & Red Letters 
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