Even though death is something that we will all face one day, many of us are still practically, and more significantly, spiritually unprepared for it.
For many people, thinking or talking about death is an uncomfortable experience. A lot of the time, conversations about what happens after death tend to focus, rather negatively, on endings.
But for Christians, we can offer another, refreshing and even hope-giving perspective. While death will mark the end of many things for us, it also enables us to gain more than we ever could from our lives here on earth, (2 Corinthians 4:17-8).
As Christians, we're not only reassured by the promise of life after death, but also by the promise that we will spend eternity with God. As we think about death, whether as a result of our own pending mortality, the passing of a family member or friend, or because we're afraid of it in a much broader sense, we can draw great comfort from God's word. Reminding ourselves that death actually leads to life and better comprehending what this actually means is a revelatory aspect of our journey in faith.
John 11:25 - Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die."
John 5:24 - Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Proverbs 12:28 - In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality.
2 Corinthians 5:8 - We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Revelation 21:4 - He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Revelation 14:13 - Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them."
Isaiah 57:2 - Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.
Romans 14:8 - If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
Ecclesiastes 7:1 - A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.
Job 19:26 - And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.
