A Scriptural Consideration Entry

The morning sky was dark, but a pale golden light began to stretch across the horizon. A brother stepped onto his porch, breathed deeply, and closed his eyes. Though his body ached and his community felt frayed by violence and mistrust, he whispered aloud what had become his quiet anthem: “Soon. Jehovah has promised. Soon.”

This kind of hope is not naïve. It is not wishful. It is guarding. It is anchoring. When the apostle Peter wrote to warn about lawless ridiculers, he did not say, “Prepare to fight them.” Instead, he said: “You, therefore, beloved ones, having this advance knowledge, be on your guard so that you may not be led astray with them by the error of the lawless people and fall from your own steadfastness.” (2 Peter 3:17) The real battle is internal—against indifference, fatigue, or the subtle drift from spiritual clarity.

Peter had just reminded his readers that Jehovah’s day will come—not as a maybe, but as a certainty. (2 Pet. 3:10) And in that certainty, we are invited to hold fast—to visualize a clean world, a healed earth, and peace in every dwelling. (Isa. 32:18) Not merely as abstract doctrine, but as a daily meditation. What fills our mind, shapes our endurance.

So what does guarding look like today? It may mean choosing meditation over media. It may mean reaching out to a discouraged brother rather than scrolling endlessly through newsfeeds. It may mean quietly reaffirming our hope when confronted with scoffing or cynicism. False teachers will twist Scripture to fit a different timeline—one where urgency is mocked and righteousness is optional. But we have “this advance knowledge.” We are not in the dark.

And when we remember why we endure—when we picture our resurrected loved ones running into our arms, when we imagine teaching Abel or Esther or ones who never knew Jehovah—we find that hope doesn’t merely lift us. It protects us. It keeps us from drifting. It keeps us steadfast.

So once again, we return to Peter’s words: Be on your guard… and do not fall. Jehovah has given us what we need to stand. He has told us in advance. And that means we can remain firm—held fast by the quiet strength of expectation.

Watchtower citation: The Watchtower, September 2023, pp. 27–28, ¶5–6

Other Reading:

• “Critical Times Hard to Deal With” — Living Faithfully in a World That Won’t Wake Up

• A Shield of Loyalty in a Lawless Age

• Stay Within the Bounds of Jehovah’s Wisdom

Let me know when you’re ready to begin the next entry.