John 17:15

It is a sweet and blessed event that will occur to all believers in God’s own time—the going home to be with Jesus. In a few more years, the Lord’s soldiers, who are now fighting the good fight of faith, will have finished with conflict and have entered into the joy of their Lord.

But although Christ prays that His people may eventually be with Him where He is, He does not ask that they may be taken away at once from this world to heaven. He wishes them to stay here.

Yet how frequently does the wearied pilgrim offer the prayer, O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest; but Christ does not pray like that. He leaves us in His Father’s hands until, like sheaves of grain fully ripe, we shall each be gathered into our Master’s garner.

Jesus does not plead for our instant removal by death, for to remain in the flesh is necessary for others, if not profitable for ourselves. He asks that we may be kept from evil, but He never asks for us to be admitted to the inheritance in glory until we are of full age.

Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; otherwise, they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial.

They want to go home, not so much for the Saviour’s company as to be at rest. Now, it is quite right to desire to depart if we can do it in the same spirit that Paul did, because to be with Christ is far better, but the wish to escape from trouble is a selfish one. Instead, let your concern and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as He pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, conflict, and suffering, and leave Him to say when “it is enough.”