Paul was confident that the very moment our spirit and soul leave our body they are immediately present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). We are not disembodied spirits wandering the earth until we finish the business we failed to accomplish in our lifetime. Neither do we need to contact some human being to help us to leave a message for our loved ones or to straighten out some misunderstanding we left behind. We know that once we take our last breath on this earth, our very next breath will be in heaven.
Death is not the end; it is the beginning. We leave the
limits of this earthly realm and enter into the glorious riches of the Kingdom
of God. We graduated from the school of life, we passed all the tests and we
earned our diploma in order to enter the grandeur of heaven and receive our
rewards. God rejoices in the death of His Saints (Psalm 116:15), because
we are no longer separated from Him, but we dwell with Him for eternity. The
day of our death is actually even better than the day of our birth (Ecclesiastes
7:1).
God fills our body, soul – thoughts, choices and emotions,
and spirit with joy as we experience exquisite pleasures in His eternal
presence here on earth (Psalm 16:9-11). However, He does not leave us
to rot in the grave. He is our guide, even in death (Psalm
48:14). He is our refuge in death (Proverbs 14:32). The
angels carry us into the presence of God in heaven (Luke
16:22), where we will never die. We are like angels in this
respect, because we are the sons of God. God raises us from the dead into a new
life with Him (Luke 20:36).
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I thank You for drawing us to Your heart during
times of strain and sorrow, which accompany the death of our loved ones. I
thank You that Your peace, which passes all human understanding, will flow over
us like a waterfall. You fill our heart with Your love so fully that we will
feel no other emotion. I ask that You help us to always find our refuge under
the shadow of Your wings, our strength in Your joy and our comfort and clarity
of thinking in Your wisdom, as You lead us beside the sill waters and restore
our soul (Psalm 23).
Thought for the Day:
Our last breath on earth is followed by our first breath in
Heaven.
