To Encourage You

Hebrews 11:20-22 “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.”

True faith finishes well.  That is one of the most awesome aspects of Christianity.  It’s the faith to face death with hope because we have a God who defeated death by the death of His Son on the cross.  The believer in Jesus Christ trusts in One Who came from Heaven, returned to Heaven, and has promised to come again to take all who trust in Him to be with Him there forever. No other religious leader has ever or is now able to make such claims, for no one else has ever done what Jesus did. They couldn’t. For all the claims they may have made about themselves and the things they would have others to believe regarding the things they said (or say today), no one else ever came from heaven to speak to us. No one else ever knew what comes after this life. How could they, for they had never been there? But the true God has always spoken from heaven to those who believed. 

In the verses above about the patriarchs of the faith, we see the hope they had at the very end of their lives because they had heard from God.  They had been given great and precious promises, and as they lay on their death beds, they spoke of those promises to their children with great confidence.  They saw beyond the grave and could bless their children with the promises of God, promises that were true for them, their children, and all believers who would follow forevermore. 

There are several believers in my life right now that, like Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, see death as something that will likely come sooner rather than later.  They are dealing with terminal diseases and all the struggles that come with them. Thankfully, because they are believers, they are facing the future with confidence. They are not afraid. They speak often of the Lord, and their focus on Him rather than on their physical condition is giving them great strength to carry on.  Though the road hasn’t been easy, they’ve maintained a wonderful sense of humor in the face of death. It’s obvious that they possess an inner joy, the fruit of the Holy Spirit Who truly does live within them. 

It is one of my continual prayers, that I, too, will finish well.  I want the faith of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the believers I’ve mentioned who are in my life right now to mark my life in the end.  I remember so well talking to a friend some years ago who was facing death. He was extremely weak as a result of the cancer that had ravaged his body, yet He kept looking with hope to His Lord. As we prayed together and asked God to give him and his family strength to endure, I remember thinking that it is in this situation that the rubber meets the road concerning what we trust in.  It is as a person faces death that they reveal whether they really believe what God has said.  For those who don’t know Him and either don’t know or don’t believe the things He has promised there is no hope, no matter what they might so confidently assert.    They are trusting in fantasies. They are hoping in lies. But for the one who knows the One Who cannot lie, there is eternal hope, come what may. There is hope that is a great anchor, one that reaches beyond the veil of death into heaven where Jesus waits to meet them.  They trust in the One Who has told them “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).  They are trusting in the One Who has promised them, “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). 

Listen to these wonderful words from Hebrews 6:13-20 and may God help us to believe them. May He give us the faith to finish well: “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will bless you and multiply you.’ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”  

Praise the name of the Lord!