Contributor:
Chad Roberts
The emotions are like a roller coaster. One minute, I am standing in faith, praying for a miraculous healing. The next moment, I’m thinking of my dad waking up, breathing celestial air. No more pain medicines. No more suffering and no more long days of illness and isolation. While my heart is hurting, I know that if he leaves this earth, it will be the best day of his entire life.
So I’m sitting in a large room with many other families whom death is near them too. I’m praying, thinking and feeling deeply tonight. What do I say to death? I’ve resolved to tell death 10 things from the Word of God. 10 truths that I know is a firm foundation in this shaky hour. 10 truths that will steady my emotions, deepen my faith and give me God’s perspective through this fiery trial.
#1. My dad’s death will be precious in God’s eyes, so it should be precious in my eyes as well.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalms 116:15
Isn’t that an odd thing to say? It’s an odd thing to feel. How can I see my dad’s death as precious? Well, there is only one way. When I realize that I “walk by faith and not by sight.” I can have faith that if God says His people’s deaths are precious to Him, then He must know something about death that I do not. All I know is to fear the unknown. That’s why I want to look to an all-knowing God in this dark hour.
If I believe that God has had grace over my dad, will there not also be dying grace? Will the Holy Spirit not finish the work He has begun in my dad? Yes! Death is precious in the eyes of the Lord, because He sees what you and I can’t see until our time has come.
#2. Death, you cannot take my dad until his appointed time.
Death does not have the power to “steal” my dad from me. Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed to man to die once and after this the judgment.” My dad has only one opportunity to die right with God. So you do. So do I. My heart rejoices that my dad is born again. I can remember a particular Sunday morning about 10 years ago at PCC. The Holy Spirit had saturated the building with His presence I stood up in the middle of the worship set and the Spirit of the Lord had come on me so strongly. I remember trembling and quoting Christ’s statement to the Pharisees that they had washed the outside of the cup without cleansing the inside. I urged people to come to the altar and let Christ wash the inside of them. Many came forward, but among them was my dad. It was such a special moment in my life and in my memory. It brings such comfort at this time.
Does your life have the testimony that you are right with God? You will have only one opportunity to die right with the Lord. Are you ready? It is comforting to know that my dad is ready should this be his time to meet the Lord.
#3. Death, you have no Sting…Grave, you have Victory!
Christ has already explored you. He has already tasted of you. He has already conquered you!
“For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:53-57). Will I hurt? Yes! Will I grieve? Yes! But not as you would like me too, Death. Listen to the Word of God!
#4. Death, I don’t grieve as those who have no hope…
I have a living hope because I have a living Word…because I have a living Savior! “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”
1 Thessalonians 4:13
#5. Death, you’ve been defeated…destroyed by the Son of God
“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26)
Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:16). “If anyone believes in me, though he dies, yet shall He live.” Death was the last enemy to be defeated. Christ, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross and brought to shame the enemy and once and for all destroyed our ultimate enemy…death!
#6. Death, God isn’t taken by surprise. All things are prepared for him.
“I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you.”
I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
My parents kept my girls this weekend. He was fine when he went to bed Saturday night. My mom called me at 7am saying that he had woke up so sick. I was preaching a few hours later when our staff interrupted me and said I needed to leave immediately for the hospital. I was in shock, but God wasn’t. I was not prepared for this day, but God is. I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but God does. Oh how I need Him!
Some say that religion is a crutch for weak people. I will admit that I am weak and feeble. I admit that I need a Savior. I admit that I’m not strong within myself. I need the Lord in my life. To me, He is not a crutch, The Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to him and are safe. He hides men beneath the shadow of His wings. When my heart is overwhelmed, He leads me to the rock that is higher than I. Do I need God? A resounding YES! My soul longs for him as the deer pants for the flowing streams. He is my rock, my shield, my fortress.
Today, around 2pm, I sought the sanctuary of the Lord. I went to the hospital chapel. Thankfully there wasn’t anyone else in there. But I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. I poured out my heart to the Lord. I told Him all that I feared, all that I worried about. And He listened. He heard me from His holy temple. I have found that His ears are not too heavy for me. His arm is not too short that it cannot reach. Oh how He cares for His own. I felt the warm embrace of the Holy Spirit so many times today. What a Shepherd! What a Savior!
#7. Death, my dad is the Lord’s!
Romans 14:8, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Death, do you understand this? Whether my dad is breathing here or breathing celestial air, he is the Lord’s! His possession, His beloved! Firmly His! Like the Good Shepherd that He is, (John 10), He will care for His sheep, even if my dad “walks through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalms 23) he will fear no evil because the Lord is with him!
#8. Death, my dad will gain all that Heaven holds
Paul wonderfully said in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ…to die is gain!”
What will my dad gain when he steps on the shores of Heaven? He’ll gain a new body. His body is so broken. It is filled with so much pain. He will have a glorified body.
#9. Death, you cannot separate my dad from Christ’s love
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)
The love I have for my dad…for my mom, my wife and my children is so strong, However, it fails in comparison to the Lord’s love for them. Oh how I can trust the Lord with my loved ones, and you can too. God gave up His Son to die for our sins…nothing, not even death itself can separate us from that strong of a love.
#10. Death, my dad has been satisfied with his living
“With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Psalms 91:6
My dad has told me many times that he is thankful for his life. He has told me that he is satisfied with the life he has lived. He didn’t know it then, but that means so much to me now at this moment. I wonder if it was enough. I wonder if he is satisfied with his days on this earth. He has told me he is and what a comfort that brings to my heart.
What does this mean for us?
My dad’s flesh has grown so weak. His body has gone downhill for several years now. Each of us will face this “fading away.” Each of our bodies will show us that we can’t live forever. Your body may be doing that now, and it may be difficult for you to accept. For
Christians, it is different. Our bodies still give out, but it’s different than for someone who is an unbeliever. It’s not that our bodies will not fail, indeed they will, but the difference is the Lord! Think on the words of David, in Psalms 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Paul wrote these magnificent words as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit. I am trusting in its everlasting truth…”So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
What I’m Expecting Next
Will my dad walk out of this hospital? I don’t know. I am praying he does. I’m not prepared to look at my phone and see “Dad” knowing he’s no longer here. I’m not prepared to call him as routine and forget that he’s not going to answer. I’m not prepared to try to explain to my girls that papaw is in heaven. No, I’m just not ready for that. But here is what I am ready for…the grace of God to sustain my heart. I’m ready for His Sovereign will to be done in my family’s life. I’m ready for Him to show me His power…be it that he walks out of this hospital or that he walks onto the shores of Heaven. Either way, it’s an absolute miracle and a blessing beyond words. Here is the only thing I know…the only emotion I can trust, I trust my dad into the hands of my Heavenly Father.
“But as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor what the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
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