Word of Encouragement (11/13/2020)

Here is the last batch:

“23.  If you find yourself afraid when death is at your door, remember that you will not be judged according to how you fare at the instant of death, but according to the general course of your life. Therefore, you must not distrust God’s mercy in death but look rather to the seals of His mercy that have rested upon all your life, calling you to faith and sanctifying you throughout the days of your pilgrimage. [This does not mean that, if we have messed up in life, we have no right to entrust our eternity to God. Rather, it means we can trust God all the more at the moment of our death because God has been so graciously with us all through our lives even though we have failed so often and so much.]

“24.  If death is upon you and you feel as though God has withdrawn His comfortable presence, consider that God is allowing you the opportunity to put forth strong faith in Him in the midst of weak feelings (2 Cor. 12:9-10) as a witness to others.

“25.  Remember that the way you evaluate your spiritual estate should chiefly be grounded on how you have lived your life rather than how you fare at the time of your death. Even the hypocrite may appear to die well, but that will have no influence on how he fares at the Judgment, which will be ‘according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad’ (2 Cor. 5:10). [This doesn’t mean that you should despair if you are ashamed of how you lived as a Christian. The ground of your eternal destiny does not lie in how well or how badly you lived: it depends on Christ’s work of salvation for sinners like you, which you receive by faith. Even if you are filled with regrets for the way you have failed as a Christian, all you need to do is to look to Jesus, trusting Him to save you. When you do this, however, you do it in humility, asking for His mercy, rather than act like you are entitled to it, which is what this paragraph is warming against.]

“26.  Consider: ‘The promises are wells of salvation flowing with the waters of life, but yet the strong Christian that expects to be refreshed by them, must be at pains to draw water out of them (Isa. 12:3). They are full breasts of consolation, but yet the weak Christian who is as the newborn babe, or new-weaned lamb, must suck these breasts (Isa. 66:11), if he is to be satisfied.’

“27.    Let your thankfulness for the promises of God be expressed for others to see and hear. Tell of the mercy, salvation, and peace you have received. If you have tasted that the Lord is good, do as the birds, which when they come upon a feast, chirp and invite their fellows. So tell the hungry soul about the satisfying and blessed food of the promises; tell the dejected what reviving cordials they are; tell the poor what enduring riches are in them; tell the broken and wounded what healing balms they are; and thus encourage them all to take hold of the promises by a hand of faith. Cripples who returned with health from the Pool of Bethesda would hang up their crutches on the trees and their rags on the hedges nearby to win credit and esteem to the waters. So you must honor the wells of salvation by making known the great things that God has done for you and by leaving in every place where you go some testimony of your thankfulness and of God’s goodness (Ps. 66:16).” What a wonderful reminder of the abundant and beautiful life we possess in Jesus Christ!