31 Days of Devotions: Life

Photo credit: knowhimonline

I'm joining the 31 Days series with a 31 Days of Devotions here.  I've been struggling to find a way to write from my heart again, so I decided to begin where my heart is - His word.  I will be sharing a different theme each day, sort of a word study of words of encouragement and hope that have meant a lot to me recently.  Some days I may post more than once if there are other things I want to share about our day to day life, but there will always be a 31 Days post every day for the month of October. I hope you will join in every day and share your own thoughts.  And, of course, for more 31 Days posts, go here.

"Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you." (Psalm 63:3)


"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21)

I remember the moment I first ask Jesus into my heart and words like these suddenly meant everything to me. Because, I knew that life without Christ was walking dead...and death in Him meant life.  When He took our sins upon the cross...the story didn't stop at His death.  For three days later, He rose again, conquering death and bringing us life.

Matthew Henry explains Philippians 1:21: "Death is a great loss to a carnal worldly man; for he loses all his comforts and all his hopes: but to a good Christian it is gain, for it is the end of all his weakness and misery and the perfection of his comforts and accomplishment of his hopes; it delivers him from all the evils of life, and brings him to the possession of the chief good."  I know that, in Christ, death is gain, because the things of this world will decay and be forgotten, but, because I live in Christ, death brings eternal life for me and the riches of His glory.

Because of the hope that I have, even in death, I can sing praises to God in the words of Psalm 63.  I love Matthew Henry's explanation here too: "It is better, a thousand times, to die in God’s favour than to live under his wrath."  Because, I know that hell is a real place, a place of endless suffering and complete isolation.  But, in Christ, God has declared me forgiven, righteous, worthy of sitting at His throne for eternity.  There is really nothing sweeter, to one who knows the truth and has bowed the knee to the One who offers complete restoration, than knowing that His love really is better than life.