Christian Living

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Victory Assured
© 2007

by

Stephen A. Peterson


Fifteen year old Jael Singleton had just undergone her fifth reconstructive facial surgery and was alone in the recovery room with her thoughts to keep her company. 37 months ago she had had faced death when the car she was riding in was hit by another teen who had stolen a car trying to outrun pursuing police. A friend of Jael’s mother was instantly killed as she transported Jael from basketball practice. Jael had faced death before but it had always been the death of an elderly person—not her own.

Jael realized that the death of someone she high regard for or loved one was more threatening to her than the possibility of her own death. When she attended the funeral of her grandfather, she cried for days. And when her pet cat died, it hurt her so much. But her own life and the chance of dying at any time did not seem to bother her. She wondered why. She recalled that she had asked herself “why” before she underwent her second surgery, “Am I prepared to die at this very second?” Jael’s immediate response had been, and continued to be, “Yes, I am. I can think this way because Jesus Christ is with me and in me. And because Jesus Christ is my person Lord and Savior I just don’t have anything to fear.”

With her readiness for life hereafter, Jael believed she could concentrate on living. Would Jael’s life be in fear or in faith? Would she be frustrated or angry if the doctor came to her room to report that additional hospitalization might be required? She was getting tired of hospitals, doctors and the pain—especially the pain.

On her fourth day in the hospital, Jael could painfully sit up in her bed. Frustrated she reached over to the nightstand for the Bible she knew to be in its drawer. Taking it out, the Bible opened without her effort. It presented Jael with the book of Isaiah to the verse: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.”

Jael immediately felt comforted in spite of her pain. “Yes, I am His! That reality is more important than this pain, facing death or maybe more surgery. Should I go on living here below or go during a surgery, I’ll still come out on top! So I don’t have to fear anything! God is really with me!”

Jael’s insight affirms St. Paul’s enthusiasm about his life: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Since Christ’s coming more than two thousand years ago millions of professed, living and once living earthly Christians came to understand the message of the “Good News”—the reality of eternal salvation in Jesus Christ even when earthly death them. For them facing some of the cruelest, more horrifying deaths were faced with praise, happiness and joy to the dismay and wonder of those who ended their lives.

May it be for all who read these words to let Jael’s and the martyrs before her resonate the joy that is Jesus’ promised to all who faithfully follow and trust in Him. Know that the Big Prize is yet to come your way whenever that day arrives whether soon or in the future.

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