Thursday SOAP

SCRIPTURE
"I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this, Martha?" - John 11:25

OBSERVATION
Jesus lays out a very clear progression. Physical life leads to death leads to eternal life. Death feels to us like a crushing end - and in many ways this is how we experience it, especially when someone we know or love dies unexpectedly. But in the perspective of this verse, death is just part of an overall process designed by God. Death is a point of transition, nothing more. And the thing we transition to through death is a secure, perfect eternity. And Jesus makes it personal - "Do YOU believe, Martha?" This certainty about death and eternity is only for those who believe in and live in Christ.

APPLICATION
There is no reason to fear death, even though it remains a sort of enemy. Death is part of a larger process, a transition to a secure eternity. So I need to live in such a way that it is evident and clear that I live in and believe in Christ. And it is good to ask myself regularly Jesus' question to Martha - Do YOU really believe this?

PRAYER
Lord, thank you that you have defeated death so that now - even though it hurts those left behind - it is nothing to fear because you have coopted it to be part of a larger process. Help me to really live with eternity in mind so that everyone who watches me will know that I believe in and live in you so that they will be heartened in the face of death as well.