Devotionals

Senior Saints, Looking Death in the Face

by Dale Buchanan 
06/05/26
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#16 in “Blessing for Senior Saints” series

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. (2 Timothy 4:6 KJV)

Most likely, you are NOT looking death in the face. But Paul was!  Probably, not too many days after this, Paul went home to be with the Lord. He was the victim of a bloody tyrant (probably Nero) who hated Christians.

We have Paul’s testimony and can be confident that he was not only ready for death. He was eager to go to be with the Lord. ”To live is Christ, and to die is gain.”   “Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is needful for you.” (Philippians 1:21, 23, 24 KJV).

Paul perhaps had many regrets about his pre-conversion days when he persecuted Christians. He called himself the chief of sinners who had been a blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious. (1Timothy 1:13,15 KJV).  But God had forgiven him, given him a new life in Christ, and had used Paul mightily in winning and discipling Christians and in starting churches. God also used Paul to write a good share of the New Testament.

All of us probably have regrettable experiences in the past. Paul wrote about “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14 KJV).

We can be ready to die (if we are saved), and we can be ready to live for Christ.  Since you are reading this, your mission is still ahead of you.  Make the rest of your life count for God.