Good Courage “—for we walk by faith, not by sight—”
“Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
(The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 5: 6-8 NASB)
You have been chosen. God knows your name. Have you stopped your running away from God, turned toward His salvation He offers through His Only Son? Jesus told the parable about the Prodigal Son, the narrative recorded in the Gospels. We have lived life, seen the mess that we have made, and we realize that we need to come home, to re-turn home.
God is at work, unseen in our lives. Those who know Christ as Savior, who are presently at home in their earthly bodies, and while present here on earth, are absent from their heavenly home. Thus, Christian brothers and sisters, the Bible tells us to ”prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
Those who do NOT believe, who are at home in the body, will remain absent from the Lord when they die (unless they make a decision to repent and follow Christ). Let us each pause to consider what Jesus Christ has done for humanity, to make the way for us to receive God’s salvation. We are encouraged to be like Christ as we live. We are called to make certain that we live, making each day count for Christ, living for Jesus, pointing others to Jesus, the Savior of the world.
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
(The Letter of Paul to the Philippians 2: 5-8 NASB)
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Death will come for all of us, for we know that we are born to die. There is no escape, for we all will experience the same fate: some soon, some later. For the believer, death is a release from the suffering, from the pain, and from the sadness. The Bible tells us so in The Revelation to John 21: 4. Not only with death bring release to the one who believes, but death also stops all earthly temptations that come from the evil one, for in heaven, tribulations will not exist. The Bible speaks this truth in The Gospel According to John 16:33. Please pause to look up both verses.
When I was a child, I attended Children’s Church, and our leader, Ms. Pohl would teach us the truth and promises of God. My sister Mischele was learning to play the piano at the time, and she could play several songs, but one that stays with me is the one we stood to sing each Sunday in Children’s Church. “When We All Get to Heaven” speaks about the coming day when we will step into Jesus’ presence, when we will see Him.”—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage,”
Believers, when we arrive home, heaven will be a permanent dwelling place—MADE POSSIBLE BECAUSE “Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
Jesus emptied Himself.
Jesus existed & was with God and Jesus Is God.
Jesus laid down His life; “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
JESUS CHRIST DID THIS FOR US!
CHRIST MADE POSSIBLE OUR FUTURE HOME IN HEAVEN.
“Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight— . . .”
GOD LOVES US THAT MUCH.
JESUS MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO BE IN HIS PRESENCE FOREVER.
So, yes we grieve when those we love pass away, and we miss their presence with us here on earth, so much that at times it steals away our breath. We cry, we plead for God to heal them, and the most beautiful thought—JESUS ALREADY HAS, for “to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
We do not lose those who belong to God, who pass away from this earthly life, for we know exactly where they have gone and where they now exist. The psalmist wrote these words of thanksgiving for deliverance from death, for believers do not walk from life to death BUT from life to LIFE.
“Precious in the sight of the LORD
(The Psalms 116: 15 NASB)
Is the death of His godly ones.”