Believe in God’s Promises

I spent the weekend canoeing on a lake with a group of girls. The weather was utterly picture perfect. The water was too cold to swim in but the fall colors of the trees surrounding us were at peak.

I’m glad this is where I was yesterday. I’m glad I got to sit in the middle of the lake and gaze in wonder at the palate of colors God created. Whispy white clouds draped the sky line. Red and brown tree leaves that fluttered in the wind were an amazing contrast to sky blue. The sun’s rays shining through those rusts and reds and the sunlight sparkling on the water was awesome to behold.

But there is another reason I’m glad I was there yesterday. Because yesterday marked 31 years since my Mom passed away.

In some ways, it still feels like yesterday but in reality it was a lifetime ago.

The focus of this post won’t be on how much I miss her or how I’m grieving. That’s NOT how this works. This blog is God’s corner of the World for Encouragement!

What have I learned?

Our physical bodies do deteriorate over time. It’s just how we were designed. I know of too many people who believe that when the body dies, your “dead” and THAT’s IT! There is nothing else. Your body “rots” in the ground.

I don’t believe that. That is just not possible.

I no longer resent, regret or feel true grief or mourning over Mom’s passing. My solace didn’t happen over night and it didn’t happen because I “WILLED” it too.

I grew up with my Mom taking me to church. I remember she read her bible. But I remember distinctly that after she was diagnosed (post surgery) in February ’83 that she spent a lot more time reading her Bible and outside in the garden (which didn’t last long). My memories of her are dim but I remember them as God allows.

What I now realize is what she learned back then. Her physical body was destined to die but she was preparing for something bigger: Her Soul, Her Spirit for Heaven.

The time she spent reading The Bible: The Word of God, was a LIFE-giving source of sustenance for the part of her that was “trapped” inside a cancer ravaged body.  Our bodies are more than what we can see. Our skin and physical manifestation covers the WHO we are inside. And that WHO we are inside can have a different destination than the casket, an urn, or a whole in the ground.

My mom was sad to be leaving the people she’d lived life with. I’m certain she was sad about her own past regrets. Sad about unrealized dreams.

I’m also certain her sadness was short-lived. She was learning to love and trust in God. His Word was a lamp in the darkness she faced. None of us knew what she was feeling, but Jesus did. Jesus had already walked in her shoes. He’d felt her pain. He was showing her through each verse she was reading how REAL HE IS. She was hungry for the PEACE of God, and God was providing.

Her ultimate trial of persecution would end up with her physical body breaking down, stopping her heart, her breathing and finally her brain. But the part that we couldn’t see (her Spirit/Soul) separated from a now defunct body and returned to its origin, her Savior.

Her dying was the end of THIS PHYSICAL earthly life but not HER SPIRITUAL demise; at the moment of her death, I know she went into God’s presence. I have felt her there.

The Enemy will try to tell us that there is nothing else beyond this mortal existence. And that might be easy to believe or to WANT to believe. Too many of us want to believe WE are in control. In control of our destiny’s, our future’s, our families; even the money we earn or the food we eat.

Let’s remember something: When you were born you came into this world with NOTHING. You arrived NAKED and in NEED of care.

You may not die Naked, you may have clothing on. But when you die, YOU TAKE NOTHING with you. You leave the same way you left.

Why are we here then?

You were given life as a TEST.

A test of character.

A test of humility.

A TEST of LEARNING to LOVE.

If you decided in this life not to believe in God.

If you opt to reject the belief of Jesus as Savior, because you have not seen Jesus, then you are a Doubting Thomas.

Do NOT let doubt cloud your mind.

Jesus Appears to Thomas

²⁴ One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin),^[a] was not with the others when Jesus came. ²⁵ They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

²⁶ Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

²⁸ “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

²⁹ Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Dying is not the end.

It was never designed to be the end:

But our ultimate destination is determined by our

CHOICES.