The Most Important Question

 

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14 (NIV)

There is one thing that you can bet your life on. That one thing is your death. Unless the Lord returns first, there is a 100% chance of your death. We are all mortal and just as we were born on this earth, we will one day leave it.

So what is the most important question? It is what will happen to you when you die. 

For the unbeliever, the best hope they have is that they will cease to exist. Any other outcome is unthinkable to them. Some might hope in reincarnation, or that maybe they will “go on to a better place”, but the general atheist consensus is that when you die there is nothing left of you.

What a sad lack of hope and depressing theory to live by. All of the pain, suffering, and endless tragedy that occurs on this earth leaves unbelievers nothing but a nihilistic attitude. And you can find that attitude infecting many areas of life today coming from those with no hope in God. Why be good, or kind, or generous, or ever have any hope or belief in anything if you think there is no future after your short life is over?

Thankfully, for those who have put their trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives we are not hopeless, but have every reason to hope. All the pain, misery, and suffering in the here and now will have meaning over there. There will be recompense for those who have trusted in Jesus and endured so much pain and suffering on this earth. 

Even if your life has not been filled with pain and misery, having hope in Christ adds meaning and purpose to a life that could otherwise be filled with self-centeredness and dangerous behaviors that rob the human soul of its worth.

At the end of his life Edgar Allan Poe was in a wretched state. A physician at his bedside reported that his final words were: “Lord help my poor soul”. While no one knows Mr. Poe’s exact religious beliefs at the time of his death, he had a background of being taught religion in his youth and had some religious sentiments in his writing. Yet it is sad to think of a life ending in misery and only then calling upon the Lord for help, yet better late than never.

If you are willing to put your hope in Jesus as your Savior, you need never go through this life alone and without hope. Through good times and bad, when you put your soul into the hands of Jesus He will walk at your side, blessing you and aiding you whatever your circumstances. We are people filled with hope. That hope is firmly placed in the sacrifice and Person Jesus Christ.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2Corinthians 5:1 (NIV)

Put your eternity into the hands of Jesus. Set that hope firmly before you and live it out day by day. You have an answer for what will happen to you when you die, about where you will go.

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8 (KJV)

Prayer: Dear Lord, at the end of life we will be shocked at how quickly it all passed by, the shortness of life is a reality we will all one day feel. Thank You that we have a confident hope that when our days are through we will have a home in heaven with You Lord. Amen.