There are many motives by which the Lord lovingly urges us to seek complete victory in him. We long for a life of joy and peace that we do not have. We long to be rid of a life of struggle against “besetting sins.” Or we are eager to have power in service and get results for Christ that are largely absent in our experience. By this or that motive the Spirit leads us to an earnest seeking of God’s secret of the life of faith. But beyond all these motives is that supreme desire to be well pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28). Boldness Before Him Then and Now The one way to be ready for his coming, to have boldness and not to be ashamed, is to abide in him. “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not” (1 John 3:6); to be cleansed from sin and to abide in that cleansing makes us ready for his coming. If we are not enjoying the Victorious Life, which is just another way of saying “abiding life,” we are not ready for his coming. And if we are not ready for his personal coming, we are not ready for his presence in our midst now. That which gives us boldness _then_ is what gives us boldness before his throne _now_ when we come to pray. “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God: and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight ... and he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him” (1 John 3:21, 22, 24). If the coming of the Lord is in God’s Word linked so vitally with a life of personal holiness, it is essential that Christians should understand what the Spirit has revealed to us concerning the truth of his coming. It is only at our peril that we neglect it. It is not an accident that most of those who are rejoicing in the Victorious Life are or become deeply interested in the truths of the Word concerning Christ’s coming. But how shall we know whether our view of his Second Coming is the Scriptural view? Testing Our View of His Coming There are two tests that will show with certainty to what extent our belief about Christ’s coming is a vital heart belief such as the Apostles had. The first test concerns more definitely our personal relation to his coming. Is the hope of his coming a real hope for you that makes it the incentive to be ready and makes it a real event to watch for with expectation, as for the return of a loved one?