Reading your Bible for today June 22

June 22: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

KJV Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4:18
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Devotion:
Have you ever had worries about what would happen to you when you die, or what happened to your Christian friends when they died? In this letter to the Thessalonians, we are given a good description of what will happen. When Christians die, they go to be with Jesus immediately. It describes it as being asleep because they will not have been raised up as we all will be when Christ comes back.

God has things all perfectly planned out for our futures. He has not missed anything out. We may think some things are missing, or other things are uncertain, but that is just because of our holes in our own faith in God’s word – nothing more. Our future is as certain as all scripture written in the Bible. Our future has been planned out. Where we stand in that future depends on our actions here and now.

The first thing Christ will take care of when He does descend is to raise up all the dead Christians... well, to raise up their physical bodies because their spiritual bodies will already be with Him. Once that is accomplished, He will then take us up in like manner – we will be transformed into our new bodies, leaving behind all the sickness and worries and death. What a wonderful day that will be!

Imagine meeting up with all the people from your past (and throughout history) and being able to be in a perfect body, without blemishes, without pain, without problems... All together so we can worship Christ for the awesome God He is! We certainly will not be able to figure out how Christ can do any of this – who can figure out how He created the world by simply speaking? But we will be able to see the results of our faith because we will no longer require faith – we will have physical proof standing with us! There is no law against sorrow, or against mourning, or against grief. What we must understand is those feelings are all for ourselves. It should not be for our Christians friends because they will be with Jesus!

Points to Ponder:
Do you worry about what will happen in your future?

Christ has promised never to leave nor forsake us! Do we need any more?