“Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – May 25, 2024
“Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.” John 21:18-19, NKJV
One of the great lies that has crept into modern Christianity is the belief that God’s greatest concern for me in life is to be happy. It isn’t a stretch to say that virtually everything else in our society is oriented toward some form of self-improvement and the promised joy that surely will follow. Improve your health, and you’ll be happy. Improve your landscaping, and you’ll be happy. Get a new car, and you’ll be happy. Make more money, and you’ll be happy. Get in the right school, and you’ll be happy.
When this is simply in the air we breathe, it should come as no surprise that this mindset creeps into our understanding of God and his perceived will for our lives. Yet when we sit with passages like John 21, we are reminded of the true foundation upon which our faith is built: a love for God that transcends all other loves, even our love for ourselves and our own pleasure, safety, or success. When Jesus said to Peter, “Follow Me,” he was inviting him to walk the way of the cross in order to know the joy of the resurrection.
Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Especially as those who live on this side of the empty tomb, we must remember daily that death is a vanquished foe that lacks all power and dominance. We can say with Paul in 1 Corinthians, “Death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). As seen on the cross, death is destroyed, and our Lord asks us to follow in his example.
Peter was set free from self-love, and this freedom allowed him to glorify God in his eventual martyrdom. And while you and I will likely never be killed in this same way, I do wonder what it looks like in our own lives to die to our own selfish desires in order to glorify God with our lives. How can you and I display in and through the choices we make that happiness, pleasure, and comfort are not the greatest pursuits in our lives? When we reach our final day on earth, let us have lived in such a way that we can join our hearts with these words from John 21, offering both our life and our death to the Lord in worship and praise.
Prayer
Father, may we glorify you in our death, and may we be set free from the empty promises of comfort and pleasure that distract us from the true purposes for which we were made, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
What does it look like for you in this season to die to your own selfish desires in order to glorify God with your life?
Related Reading
Matthew 16:24; John 13:36; 2 Peter 1:13-14
Worship Resource
John Mark McMillan feat. Bryan Torwalt: Death In His Grave
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