There is nothing like contemplating death for giving us a new perspective on life. While I was home for the holidays, I thought about death quite a bit. I thought about it as I left Waco knowing my pastor would likely pass away before I returned to Waco and as I got the news that he had indeed passed away. I thought about it while taking my dad to the hospital when his blood pressure was dangerously high, and we thought he was having another heart attack. I thought about it while visiting my grandmother who continues to decline and inch closer and closer to the other side. I had sweet and special time with my family, maybe particularly sweet given the realization again of how blessed we are for each day together and how quickly death can sneak up on us. Even when we know it’s coming, it is an unwelcome intruder into our lives, robbing us of people near and dear. But death is also peace from suffering and eternal rest in Christ. It is to be present with God in all His glory and to be with Him forever.
The grief is real, though, just as the promises are. I realized while I was home how much I have already grieved my grandmother and how much I already feel the loss of her. I also realized how completely unprepared I am to lose my dad. Dad, I want you around so much. I need your wisdom, your love, and your strength in my life. I still have so much to learn from you. But I know that regardless of what happens in either situation, or with any of my family and friends, I know God is in control and He cares. So as I pondered death & dying, I decided to revisit His words and His truth, seeking solace and peace.
I love that God understands our grief, and even cries with us! He is there when the tears won’t stop. And He is a God of Comfort, who wraps us in His loving arms. I love the assurances He gives us to help us through the tough times. And I love that He is God over death, and God over life, that Jesus came that we might have life abundantly and that we might live fully in Him. The paradox of death is that it is both fully certain, in that it comes to all of us, and uncertain, in that we don’t know when or how it will come. To make our lives count, we must live fully in Him. We must run the race well and fight the good fight.
Here are some passages and verses that particularly spoke to me. If you are dealing with loss in your life, I hope these verses encourage you as much as they encouraged me.
Grief
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
-Psalm 34:17-18
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
-Psalm 127:2-4
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
-Psalm 42:1-5
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” – John 11:32-36
Comfort
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
-Isaiah 46:4
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Assurances
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. – John 14:1-3
Living
I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. – John 10:10
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3:12-14
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. – 2 Timothy 4: 6-8
Do you have other verses that have spoken to you on death, dying, or living well? If so, please share in the comments section below. I would love to hear from you.
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