To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 5:6-9 “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.”

If you were to ask yourself which of these two emotions is dominant in your life, particularly as you look to the future, would it be courage or fear?  Then this question: Which of these two emotions do you want to be dominant in your life?  As you look around you and listen to people speak, as you read the newspaper and watch TV, which of these two emotions do you think is dominant in the world in which we live?  Wouldn’t you want to have the attitude of the apostle Paul stated in the verses above, i.e., to be “always of good courage.”  So, how is this possible?  What’s the secret to it?  Paul answers this by letting us in on the fact that as a believer in Jesus Christ, he had an eternal perspective about everything.  He knew that there was more to life than what we experience in this world. In fact, there is much more.  He knew that the greatest fear of any human being is the fear of death.  He calls that fear of death a “sting,” in 1 Corinthians 15:55.  It’s the fear of what’s going to happen to us in the future. How’s this situation or that one going to affect us?  What’s the worst thing that can happen to us?  Could we lose everything? Could we lose our own life? 

Obviously, these are not pleasant thoughts, but thoughts, nevertheless, that plague many of us; otherwise, why the rampant anxiety that so many people suffer? But Paul lets us know that when we know Christ, all these fears get turned on their head. He lets us in on the truth that for the believer, death is not the worst thing that an happen to us; rather, it’s the best thing!  He states the fact that what happens to our physical body, up to and including death, is not a limitation to what happens to the spirit, the real person, living in that body.  He lets us know that when we depart from this physical body (which he earlier likened to a “tent”) we are ushered into a glorious eternity of a state of being at home with the Lord.  It is that awareness that makes all the difference. It gives us a purpose of living a life with a preeminent goal to please the Lord, and a preeminent hope of stepping into His very presence in heaven when we die. 

Paul knew that Christ was with him now, regardless of his circumstances.  He knew that Jesus was in sovereign control of everything that happened to him in life. He had great courage in his present life because of this and he had great courage as he looked to the future, even in the knowledge that that future would include his own death.  Paul knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was at the very moment of his death that things would only be better for him, infinitely better, in the eternal state. 

So, is that our perspective on life?  If it really is, we will have the same courage Paul did. May God help us to trust Him always, whether in life or in death, for it’s in this trust that we can live a life filled with courage, rather than a life filled with the anxiety that seems to dominate so many people’s lives today.