Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for safety now and after death touches the very heart of what God promises. He hears prayer offered to the Father in the name of Jesus, and it is the Father's desire to be glorified in the Son as He answers.
That longing you expressed for the better side when you die is an eternal perspective, and keeping that perspective changes everything. Scripture contrasts what is seen, which is temporary, with what is not seen, which is eternal. When we lose that view we become troubled like Asaph in Psalm 73, but when God restores it we see that present hardships cannot be compared with the eternal weight of glory that belongs to His children. To hold that hope in you is purifying and sustaining, because you are looking for the day of the Lord and the glory of His eternal kingdom.
God has promised that better side before the world began, and because God cannot lie His promise is sure. That promise is eternal life as a free gift through faith in Jesus Christ. It is not earned by being good enough, by religious activity, attendance or giving, and it cannot be purchased. By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works. The mystery that was not made known in other ages is now revealed, that all people, both Jew and Gentile, may partake freely in the grace of God and have a place in His kingdom through Jesus. Whoever humbles himself like a little child and trusts in Christ becomes a child of God and a joint heir with Him.
Jesus described Himself as the true bread from heaven. Those who ate manna in the wilderness still died, but He came down from heaven to give life to the world, so that whoever believes in Him will not die but live. To trust Him is to receive that building of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For the child of God, death is not ceasing to be kept safe. It is moving out of a temporary tent, a worn out dwelling, into a beautiful, permanent house that God Himself has prepared. Your body holds you in time, but the moment your spirit leaves this body you step out of time into the eternal, where God simply is. That is why Scripture can say you are kept by the power of God unto an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
Heaven itself is a wonderful place filled with glory and grace, where you will see the Savior's face. Scripture speaks of a new heaven and a new earth that God will create, where the things we value so highly here have no such value there, and where there is no more sorrow. Even now there is a temple in heaven of which the earthly tabernacle was only a copy, and Jesus has gone to prepare that place for His own.
God also does not want heaven to feel like a sudden shock. He is working in you now, shaping eternal things in your life, preparing you for that kingdom so that the transition is natural, from one degree of His work to the next. Part of that keeping is His care day by day. Jesus said of little ones who trust Him that their angels always behold the face of His Father in heaven, and He has given charge to keep you in all your ways.
So the safest place to be, always and even when you die, is in Christ. If you have not already done so, put your simple trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, believing that He died and rose for you. Tell the Father honestly that you receive His gift of eternal life through Jesus. Then you can rest in this, that the One who promised to keep you now is the same One who will carry you into that eternal house, to be clothed with what is from heaven and to dwell in the city of God that will never pass away.
May the Lord give you peace as you look to Him, keep you by His power each day, and anchor your heart in the sure hope that to be absent from this body is to be present with Him in glory.
That longing you expressed for the better side when you die is an eternal perspective, and keeping that perspective changes everything. Scripture contrasts what is seen, which is temporary, with what is not seen, which is eternal. When we lose that view we become troubled like Asaph in Psalm 73, but when God restores it we see that present hardships cannot be compared with the eternal weight of glory that belongs to His children. To hold that hope in you is purifying and sustaining, because you are looking for the day of the Lord and the glory of His eternal kingdom.
God has promised that better side before the world began, and because God cannot lie His promise is sure. That promise is eternal life as a free gift through faith in Jesus Christ. It is not earned by being good enough, by religious activity, attendance or giving, and it cannot be purchased. By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works. The mystery that was not made known in other ages is now revealed, that all people, both Jew and Gentile, may partake freely in the grace of God and have a place in His kingdom through Jesus. Whoever humbles himself like a little child and trusts in Christ becomes a child of God and a joint heir with Him.
Jesus described Himself as the true bread from heaven. Those who ate manna in the wilderness still died, but He came down from heaven to give life to the world, so that whoever believes in Him will not die but live. To trust Him is to receive that building of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For the child of God, death is not ceasing to be kept safe. It is moving out of a temporary tent, a worn out dwelling, into a beautiful, permanent house that God Himself has prepared. Your body holds you in time, but the moment your spirit leaves this body you step out of time into the eternal, where God simply is. That is why Scripture can say you are kept by the power of God unto an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
Heaven itself is a wonderful place filled with glory and grace, where you will see the Savior's face. Scripture speaks of a new heaven and a new earth that God will create, where the things we value so highly here have no such value there, and where there is no more sorrow. Even now there is a temple in heaven of which the earthly tabernacle was only a copy, and Jesus has gone to prepare that place for His own.
God also does not want heaven to feel like a sudden shock. He is working in you now, shaping eternal things in your life, preparing you for that kingdom so that the transition is natural, from one degree of His work to the next. Part of that keeping is His care day by day. Jesus said of little ones who trust Him that their angels always behold the face of His Father in heaven, and He has given charge to keep you in all your ways.
So the safest place to be, always and even when you die, is in Christ. If you have not already done so, put your simple trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, believing that He died and rose for you. Tell the Father honestly that you receive His gift of eternal life through Jesus. Then you can rest in this, that the One who promised to keep you now is the same One who will carry you into that eternal house, to be clothed with what is from heaven and to dwell in the city of God that will never pass away.
May the Lord give you peace as you look to Him, keep you by His power each day, and anchor your heart in the sure hope that to be absent from this body is to be present with Him in glory.
