The Word - May 4, 2012 - WALK AND NOT FAINT

"I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13).

Every believer in Christ has a hope; not a wish, but a solid hope for the future based on the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, who cannot lie. He declared, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35).

We are presently in the land of the dying, for until Christ returns for His own, not one person will leave this world without dying. It is appointed unto all of us to die, but it is Not appointed unto all Christians, for those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord will never see death (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

At the same time, those who are "dead in Christ" are very much alive with the Lord with their eyes close in sleep. The Bible assures us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, without missing a single beat! Absent here---present there.

Praise God, while believers in Christ are now in the land of the dying, we are going to the land of the living, where those "In Christ" will never die! We read that "God shall wipe all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:4-5).

Romans 14:8 declares: Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live or die, we are the Lord's"

The outlook in this world is often discouraging, but when we look up, we encourage ourselves in the Lord and in His precious promises. Confidence in the Lord kept David from being discouraged in spite of foreboding circumstances. We have so much more than he, because we are "in Christ" and by God's grace: "Round my heart still closely twine, those ties which none can sever; For I am His and He is mine Forever and Forever!"