2. Learn from the Apostle Paul to “die daily.”
Practice the duty of self-denial and the chastening of the flesh till it will become a habit with you, and when you have to lay down the flesh and part with everything, you will be only continuing the course of life you have pursued all alone. No wonder that dying should prove to be hard work if you are completely unused to it in thought and expectation. If death comes to me as a stranger, I may be startled, but if I have prepared myself to receive him, he may come and knock at my door and I shall say, “I am ready to go with you, for I have been expecting you all my life.”
How beautiful is this expression of the Apostle, “I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.” He was waiting for death as for a friend, and when it came, I am sure he was very pleased to go. He tells us he had a “desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” Even so may we learn to look at the time when we shall hear the summons, “Come up here,” as a time to be longed for rather than dreaded. Learn to daily submit your will to God’s will. Learn to endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross, so that when the last conflict comes it may find you able by the grace of God to bear the brunt of the final contest with unflinching courage. And as the last preparation of the end of life, I advise a continual course of active service and obedience to the command of God.
I have frequently thought that no happier place to die could be found, then that of one’s post of duty. If I were a soldier, I think I should like to die with victory shouting in my ear, or as Nelson died in the midst of his greatest success. Preparation for death does not mean going off alone to our bedrooms and retiring from the world, but rather it means active service, “doing the duty of the day.” The best preparation for sleep, the healthiest sedative, is hard work, and one of the best things to prepare us for sleeping in Jesus, is to live in him an active life of going about doing good. The attitude in which I wish death to find me is, waiting and watching; at work, doing my allotted task, and multiplying my talent for the master’s glory. The lazy person may not anticipate rest, but workers will look forward to the hour when they will hear the words, “It is finished.”
3. Keep your eye on the reward.
Lay up treasures in heaven, and thus will you be ready to cross the river and enter the loved land, where heart and treasure have gone beforehand, to prepare the way. Washed in the blood of Christ, accustomed to submit to whatever God wills, and to find our pleasure in doing his will on earth as we hope to do it in heaven, joined to a life of holy service, and I am persuaded that we shall be prepared to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” and with him, calmly and joyfully to anticipate the crown which does not fade away. God bring you to this point, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
