DEATH: HOW TO FACE IT?
Death. Who wants to read a blog about death ? It’s not a subject we like to think about. Yet, the older I get, the more I find myself thinking about it. The closer it looms in the horizon, the more attention I give it. It used to be something way out there in my future, but that future is getting closer and could be here any day. Death is our promotion to heaven to spend eternity in God’s presence. I can understand why those who don’t know God fear death. But why should we who are his children fear it?
I think one reason is that we fear the process of dying, not what comes on the other side. God promises to walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4). Jesus will take us from this life into the next (John 14:3) and we will be with him forever (Luke 23:43).
God promises us grace for each day as we need it. That includes the day we will die. He promises dying Grace. We don’t get that ahead of time, but it’ll be there when the time comes. God promises it, and He always keeps His promises (Psalm 23:4).
I think another concern about death for Christians is about the people they will leave behind. I know that when I die, it will be wonderful for me. But I know there are those who will grieve. I don’t want to be the cause of grief in anyone’s life. That’s something we have to leave up to Jesus. He loves our loved ones more than we love them. He knows what the grief of death is like. He wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35). He promises to be near to the brokenhearted and save the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18). We need to trust in His promises. We commit our loved ones to His care when we are gone, the same as we do now while we are still here.
When we live for the Lord and went to serve Him, we don’t want to leave this world until we have completed our work here. Perhaps there were things unaccomplished. There may be things in the past that could have been done better. So yes, we want to go to heaven, but not just yet. It’s good to want to live these lives so that every moment has meaning until we are done. But the timing of our death is a decision only God can make.
One thing we do know for sure, one second on the other side of death we will be glad that it happened. Trust God with the timing of all of it. Thank Him that we have assurance that this life is not the end. This is not as good as it gets, this is as bad as it gets for the child of God. We are not leaving the land of the living and going to the land of the dying, we are leaving the land of the dying to spend eternity in the land of the living.
So, take your concerns and fears about death to God and leave them there. But don’t let it rob you of joy and peace in your life today. Jesus has conquered death. There is nothing to fear. (August 15, 2022 Doylestown, PA)
Romans 8:37-39 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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