Blessed to Rest
There are so many people who fear death. They have no assurance of what will happen after they die. However, many of them give no thought to how to have that assurance. They would rather just live life here the way they want with no thought for life after death. It doesn't need to be that way. In fact, if we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, we can have full assurance that we will spend eternity with Him in heaven. The truth is that He will bless His own in death. Each of us will receive rest from our labors here on earth, and our deeds will follow us. (Revelation 14:13) That is something to ponder fully.
To prepare for death, we must be certain that Christ has saved us, since we can't save ourselves by anything we do to work for it. All we can do is to surrender to Him in repentance for our sins and faith in Him as the Lord of all who died to pay for our sins. Once we know that we know Him, we begin to obey Him out of love. We "labor" doing the works that He has prepared for us. (Ephesians 2:10) We will be judged after our death based on how we did those things. If we did the right things, our deeds will be known. They will form our reputation in heaven. However, if we did the wrong things, they will be burned up, and we will barely get into heaven. (I Corinthians 3:10-15) That is why we need to be careful to live for Christ and do His will faithfully all of our life. Then, heaven will be just that much better.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Revelation 16-18.
To prepare for death, we must be certain that Christ has saved us, since we can't save ourselves by anything we do to work for it. All we can do is to surrender to Him in repentance for our sins and faith in Him as the Lord of all who died to pay for our sins. Once we know that we know Him, we begin to obey Him out of love. We "labor" doing the works that He has prepared for us. (Ephesians 2:10) We will be judged after our death based on how we did those things. If we did the right things, our deeds will be known. They will form our reputation in heaven. However, if we did the wrong things, they will be burned up, and we will barely get into heaven. (I Corinthians 3:10-15) That is why we need to be careful to live for Christ and do His will faithfully all of our life. Then, heaven will be just that much better.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Revelation 16-18.