When you realize your own mortality what happens? You appreciate life more, right? Just ask someone who's had a near-death experience. They are revitalized with a new perspective on life. While I've never had a near-death experience, I do realize how fragile my life is. I'm so minuscule here on this earth. I think about this every time I fly on a commercial airplane at 500 MPH and 30,000 feet off the ground. God could take me out in a nanosecond! It's only by His grace that you and I even have our next breath.
Yup, I think about death a lot. Don't misunderstand me. It's not in a morbid or suicidal sense. It's in appreciation of life. I am grateful for the time God has given me. I have lots of plans, hopes, and expectations for the future, but if He calls me home...well, I guess I'm okay with that. Yes, there is hesitancy in my response only because I have a hard time grasping the reality of heaven. That's natural. But I'm learning to trust what He has promised in the Bible. I wish I had Paul's level of faith here. He says in Phil 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Paul is saying that fullness of life is found in Jesus Christ - so true. But he's also saying it will be even better when we exit this life in order to spend eternity with Him in person.
So when can we expect death? 2 Pet 3:10 says that the Lord will come as a thief in the night. This is referring to the second coming of Jesus, but could also be applied to when He calls us home. It will come when we least expect it. What a mistake for those who don't consider their mortality. Many people mistakenly think that they have plenty of time to get right with God later. This will likely not be the case. As a thief in the night does not announce his arrival, so too will death be a surprise. The question to ask today is how is your relationship with God? The only way to be right in God's eyes is to accept the gift of His only Son, Jesus Christ as your personal savior (John 3:16).
Thinking about death doesn't have to be a horrible subject. It's quite the opposite for those confident in salvation through Jesus Christ's redeeming work on the cross, in which case there is no fear in death. (Admittedly, most of us are a tad concerned about the process, but it's in God's hands and He ultimately works it out for good for those who are in Christ). There's no need to be afraid. Place your trust in Jesus, the One who has conquered the grave!
GrantJ
"...I have a hard time grasping the reality of heaven. That's natural.." I think we all do. It's something that no one can imagine..it's a matter of faith, true, but I think the biggest reason we might struggle to grasp the reality of heaven is because we were not created to want to go there. That is why we fear death..why human nature is to not want to die. We want to live, its in our DNA.Though I believe in Heaven, I do not want to go to there. If my Creator's purpose for me was to go to Heaven..why then did he not create me there..why does the earth even exist if it is not meant to be inhabited? As the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo held, is it to be just "a brief, often unfortunate, episode" in a journey to a spirit realm? God's purpose for Adam and Eve was for them to inhabit the Earth and live forever in Paradise, why then would his purpose for mankind change?..Matthew 5:5 says "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. " That is my hope..to live forever in Paradise >>on Earth< just like God intended from the beginning. "..the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited.."(Isaiah 45:18)
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