death | Daily Encouragement

“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, NIV)

Dying is a part of living.

Any religion, philosophy, or belief system that does not address this inevitable fact of life is not worth following.

As disciples of Jesus, we have God’s instruction about how to face death and dying: Not as those who have no hope. Our hope for what occurs after we die is based on what Jesus has already done. He has conquered death, hell, and the grave by His resurrection.

Therefore, believing that God is good to His word, we grieve only the temporary absence of those who have died, because the loss is not eternal. Take heart in this promise from our heavenly Father. – Luther

Tagged death, eternity, grief, resurrection, the book of 1 Thessalonians

August 22

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“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14, NIV)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “compassion” as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”

To begin to see ourselves as God see us is the first step toward a new frontier of compassion toward others. To regard ourselves as something other than “dust” — that is, as transitory and humble — is to ignore the lessons of history, the evidence of biology, and the propositions of theology.

We may be able to fool ourselves as to our true make-up because everything seems to be going our way (something the scriptures refer to as “the pride of life”). However, if we see ourselves as God sees us, we come not only to realize what we are not, but to the realization of Who God is. It is in such a place that we apprehend the “fear” (also translated as the “reverence”) of the Lord.

The psalmist says that it is upon such people that the Lord’s compassion rests. God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, as His “sympathetic consciousness” of our distress. The cross of Jesus is His sole and solitary plan to alleviate that distress. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s guarantee. – Luther