Life, Death, and Hope - Martin Wiles

For the dead do not remember you. Who can praise you from the grave? Psalm 6:5 NLT

Time seemed to last forever.

Whether I’m a newborn baby or an aged adult, my day holds twenty-four hours and divides into the same amount of seconds, minutes, and hours. But when I was a small boy, time seemed to move slower and the days to stretch longer. Saturdays and summers seemed to last forever.

Then a strange thing happened. I got older. I’m not sure when time seemed to abruptly speed up, but it did. I was accustomed to hearing my grandparents talk about how time flies, but I had never experienced it. Now I was. I had the same amount of time as I did when I was younger, but it didn’t seem so. Not only did the days fly faster, but the months and years did also. When I was a child, it seemed I had forever ahead of me, but now it appeared that forever had arrived.

Although the thought of death passed briefly through my mind when I was young, it didn’t linger. Now that I’m older, I know I have more days behind me than I have in front of me. The need to prepare for the end haunts me.

The psalmist presents a picture of life, death, and little hope. God’s revelation was progressive, so the psalmist didn’t have the light of New Testament teachings. Sheol was a dark and dreary place. But there is hope.

Barring the return of Jesus Christ, death is inevitable for everyone. But death doesn’t end existence. There’s more to come, and the more is good or bad depending on the choice I’ve made during life. If I’ve chosen to trust in Christ as my Savior, receive His forgiveness for my sins, and follow Him in obedience, then heaven awaits me. And it’s not a place where I won’t remember God but a place He inhabits. A place where I will serve and praise Him forever.

Leaving God out of my life results in a different end. A place called hell. A place of torment, remembrance, division, and hopelessness. No one can pray me out of it or deliver me from it. God doesn’t send me there or want me there; He merely lets me have what I’ve chosen.

Life is short, death is certain, but hope is possible. Choose Christ and experience it.

Tweetable: Do you have hope beyond this life?

Prayer: Father, we thank You for the hope we can have through faith in Jesus Christ. 

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