How Do I Endure Life and Face Death Unafraid?

What enables you to endure life and face death unafraid?

From The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung

Q. What is your only comfort in life and death? 

That I am not my own,

• but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
• He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood,
• and has set me free from all the power of the devil.

He also preserves me in such a way  

• that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head;
• indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.
• Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He assures me of eternal life 
• and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 1

For the Bible Tells Me So...

1 Corinthians 6:19,20 

• Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 
• For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Romans 14:7-9 

• For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 
• For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. 
• Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 
• For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Titus 2:14 

• …who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed 
• and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

1 John 1:7 

• But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, 
• and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

John 8:34-36 

• Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 
• And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 
• Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

2 Thessalonians 3:3 

• But the Lord is faithful, 
• who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.

Matthew 10:29-31 

• “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 
• But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
• Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Romans 8:28 

• And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, 
• to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:15,16 

• For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, 
• but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 
• The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God….

Romans 8:14 

• For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

...we are meant to live and die in the joy of this comfort.  That so few Christians do is a testimony to both how hard life can be and how little we meditate on what it means to belong to Christ.

From The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung