Another travel thought blog!! This time I was on a 14-hour trip from Romania to Macedonia!
The concept of fear has been a large part of my thoughts for the last several weeks. Why are we afraid of death? We pray for protection. We ask God to keep us safe and get us to places without any incidences. We ask God to protect us, to “put a hedge of protection around us”. Why?
I’d like to say that we ask these things so that we will be able to stay alive to do ministry. Or because we want to keep others safe as well. If we are honest though, a majority of the time it is because we don’t want to die. The thought of death scares us, so we pray that God will not allow it to happen to us.
Why do we fear death? Is it because we have a “healthy respect” for the idea that we would be facing God and judgment? Is it because there are so many unknowns about death? Is it because we don’t want to leave this life?
No matter what the reason is, we don’t actually have to be afraid for death. First off, when Christians following Jesus die, we get to go see Jesus!! What better reward is there? Second, Christ was obedient to the point where he did die. He didn’t fear death. He didn’t fear anything. He didn’t want to go through the pain, but he knew he had to do it. That is why he was upset in the garden of Gethsemane, not because he was scared.
We have that same confidence. Death is not a back thing. It means we are even closer to God than we are now.
When I ask God for safety and protection, I want to ask so that I trust God in whatever he has waiting for me. If he chooses to keep me safe, so be it. If he chooses to allow pain or death, so be it. The prayer is not for God, the prayer is for me, for my confidence in his power and control of the universe.
If our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? If our God is with us, than what could stand against?
#GodIsInControl #redefiningdisciple
#THIRD
