Day 24 - Issue 25
Hebrews 2:14b NLT
'For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.'
The idea and experience of death is far-reaching. It self-evidently describes that time each of us will face when we draw our last breath. Yet, we die many times throughout our lives. As I embraced a dear friend and sobbed out my sorrow at being unable to father children, something died within – and here was I grieving its loss. Then Katey and I fought MS unsuccessfully and slowly came to terms with the fact we had to learn to live with it in our home and our dreams. We all face and fight death many times throughout life.
The Jews recognised the devil as the angel of death, the one who intimidates each of us with the fear that what we face is insurmountable. Experiences can drain us of hope and the will to live. This is all a part of the fear of death. In fact, for a number of years Katey and I were living in the gloom of death, boxing its shadows in a vain hope we might exit this underworld and find the life we yearned for and imagined we deserved. Death ruled us and we were subservient to its master, Satan. We died to friends, to church, to anything that lay beyond the shadow it cast across our path. Like gangrene, it was slowly taking hold and would have entirely killed us even as we lived.
Thank God, our eyes were opened as we recognised that in fact death was defeated through Jesus. Defeated even as he walked in its shadow, suffered yet endured, and broke its power once and for all. We clung to Christ, painful though that was. Our suffering rose to overwhelm us on many occasions, yet somehow we clung to Christ.
Seizing control of how we chose to perceive and experience our circumstances, we disempowered the angel of death, for we were not dying, we were living. We were living within clear constraints, yet now sustained by the knowledge and presence of Jesus.
QUESTION: What might it take to move from fear to living out of hope through grace?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you that you broke the power of death so that I need fear it no more.
