It can be very challenging to not get caught up in the fear and mass hysteria (not even sure if hysteria is the right word to use in this context, since its use often implies exaggeration, and I am not at all sure that the threat is being exaggerated). We need to preach to ourselves truths like, Fear not for I am with you, Perfect love casts out fear, God has not given us a spirit of fear. (If you are like me, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.) Lord, we desperately need You. It is quite sobering to contemplate that this fear that is sweeping the globe will pale in comparison to the blanket of fear and panic that will engulf the globe as soon as the Bride has been removed. I don't think we can even begin to truly know what that horror will feel like, and I praise God that we never will. For me personally, I don't think I fear death itself. I tend to view it as a promotion or upgrade. What I struggle with is the prospects of more suffering before I am done with this world. God knows I have certainly had my share already. I have found the bodies of brutally murdered family members at the hands of another family member. I have watched a cousin commit suicide. I have been abandoned by my earthly father growing up as a child. I have struggled in a marriage filled with emotional pain for both of us for 31 years. I have seen the closeness of my relationship with my daughter deteriorate. I have been ravaged financially by Lyme disease, while at the same time being driven several years ago to the edge of suicide because of the combined physical and mental anguish of that insidious disease. (Thankfully, I am doing much better health-wise, with most days very manageable.) So, I actually welcome the thought of being liberated from this corrupted, mortal body and waking up on the other side where I am ultimately clothed with incorruptible immortality. I just don't want to suffer anymore to get there. From where I stand, it is enough Abba, enough. Maranatha!!! Amen brother. Enough, enough.! Whether through much suffering and many trials or through the plodding of uneventful or unnoticed lives simply waiting for death, we all aspire for something better. God is the only one that truly satisfies! We have truly been given only a foretaste of what is stored up for us. I think that fear of death can better be described as fear of the unknown. Those that gloried only in their flesh naturally fight death, fearful that nothing else exists. Those that have expanded their vision of reality to include an afterlife don't cling as hard to this life. But with God we are afforded His help in this life and promised an eternity of fullness in the next! But then we are called to leave behind the simple and childish things like Earth, and take on the greater and more meatier aspects of a different realm like Heaven! TR Watchman, may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ continue to grant you the peace that passes all of our earthly understanding. I agree with you, it is enough, I am so ready to hear that trumpet. :prayer-hands:
