“Blessed Are Those Who Die In The Lord!”

“Blessed Are Those Who Die In The Lord…!”
We have spent the week imaging the resurrection life. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth when Siward was informed that his son died in the battlefield like a man, he was happy that his son died honorably. He said he was sure that in death his son had become a soldier of God. To die honorably is to receive a bullet from the front. A soldier who receives a bullet from behind dies like a coward because he died running away from the enemy rather than facing the enemy.
It is the same with believers. The question will be asked, “How did you die?” The answer was given to John in Patmos when a voice from heaven told him, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on…they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them'”(Rev.14:13).
The word blessed as used here “describes the favourable circumstance granted by God to a person.” It comes to such a person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, but rather delights in the laws of God on which he meditates day and night (Ps.1:1).
Those who are thus blessed will inherit the kingdom of God (Mt.5:3), and “they will rest from their labour.”
But there is a condition! “their deeds will follow them” to testify that they qualify.
Indeed, there is a sense in which death frees us from all these meaningless earthly toils; and the meaningful ones too. The question to ponder on: “What kind of labour are you engaged in? Is it meaningful or meaningless?”
You see my dear friend, a man can spend his time engagingly, working tirelessly, but the nature of the work and how it is done makes the difference! Imagine the person who labours to empty a pool using a basket full of holes! What a wasted labour!
It is good and honourable to give your time to the things of God; such that in whatever you do you should “work heartily as serving the Lord and not men!” It is not as if good works is the guarantee for salvation. Salvation is through belief in Jesus Christ alone, but good works complements our effort to obedience.
Weekend prayer: Holy Spirit enforce my commitment to the works of God so that I will be blessed to die in the Lord. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!