A few months ago, a dear friend of mine made the following comment in a conversation, "We are not promised tomorrow." There have been many deaths in my life this year, both in my biological family and in my extended social circle. The unexpected nature of some of that death motivated my friend to make this statement. At first, I found this comment to have a poetic truth to it, and I even repeated it later in a conversation about the emotions present when dealing with the aftermath of my father's passing. However, something about it bothered me. After praying and searching the scripture, I want to share what I think the Lord is teaching me on this subject.
Death is an intrusion.
In scripture, we are told that God created this universe perfectly and that it was created as a place of fellowship between humans and their Creator. Yet, the world we live in is far from perfect. Death is that thing that makes this world imperfect. We know from the Bible that death is the result of sin. Sin is our choice as humans to make ourselves more important than our creator. This leads us to think that we can outsmart God’s plan for us and justify not following the instructions he has given us on living a healthy and joy-filled life. As the Bible says in Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death…
Death is the enemy. There is an innate fear of death in all of us. This is so true that those who don’t fear death are usually classified as unwell by psychological professionals. In 1 Corinthians 15, it talks about the hope we have in Christ due to the promise of resurrection. A promise that Christ guaranteed by his resurrection from death. In the 26th verse in this chapter, God tells us through the apostle Paul that death is the last enemy that Christ will destroy in the last days.
The inevitability of death and the power death has to erase even the best-laid plans of men have led many to believe that this life on earth is purposeless and meaningless. Solomon, the wisest man that ever lives, said in Ecclesiastes 8:15, “there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry.” The vital part of this statement is “under the sun.” Solomon in Ecclesiastes distinguishes between those without the hope of God as being “under the Sun.” I also went to a weekend-long conference from a major personal training company that the weekend’s culmination was that “Life is purposeless and meaningless.”
Power of a purpose
So are we promised tomorrow? My study of scripture shows many examples of Godly men and women that acted boldly despite the threat of death. Though afflicted by an illness that left him partially blind and crippled, the apostle Paul traveled the known world and preached the hope of God with boldness in from of commoners and kings alike. Paul had people plotting to kill him regularly and spent many years in chains. Yet even when it was prophesied that he would be arrested, he acted boldly and went to Jerusalem knowing he would be arrested.
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego all boldly obeyed God and worshiped God despite being in a foreign land and under the rule of a king that forbade them to worship God. They faced pits of lions and fiery furnaces with boldness despite their fear.
There are many other examples of this, Deborah, Ester, Elijah, and Isaiah in the Old Testament, all of whom faced certain death with boldness. Each of Christ’s apostles was either marted for their faith or imprisoned, yet they never faltered in their boldness to proclaim God’s grace. So what can we learn from these examples? These men and women acted as though they were promised a future,
Conclusion
God told Paul that he would make it to Rome as part of his ministry. God also laid it on Paul’s heart to go to Jerusalem and told Paul he would be arrested when Paul got there. Paul was literally promised tomorrow, and he was able to act with boldness because of that promise. God promises each of us that gift of salvation and the promise of resurrection unto eternal life. It also says in several places in scripture that God numbers the days of every man. I once heard someone say that we are invincible until God decides our time on this earth is up. If it is not our time, there is nothing anyone or anything can do to kill us.
When I was in Iraq, I once had a bullet miss my head by mere inches. During times of struggle and loss in my life, I have found myself questioning God’s wisdom in not letting that bullet hit me. But what I keep coming back to is that if I am still alive, God has me here for a purpose. As it says many times in scripture, that purpose is to glorify God and have a personal and intimate relationship with God. Everything that God commands us to do in scripture helps us on that journey. All of the social constructs that God created for us, Marriage, the family, and the church, are all tools that God uses to bring us into a closer relationship with Him and bring glory to the only one worthy of glory, God.
So in conclusion, yes, we are promised tomorrow. How detailed God’s revelation of our future seems to correlate to how surrendered we are to His plan for our life. So if you want to know what tomorrow is going to bring, first surrender your will and be willing to follow God’s will boldly, as the examples laid down in scripture were. Then God will give you all the wisdom you need to know what the future will hold for you. So will you pursue personal pleasure that ultimately leads us to hopelessness, pain, and wasted days? Or will you passionately pursue the passions and purpose that God planned for you and let Him fill our days with joy and meaning?