Testimony: A 10-Day Devotional By Gloria GaynorExemplo

Take My Hand, Precious Lord 

Whenever someone close to us passes away we are naturally saddened. When someone we know experiences the death of a loved one we feel badly for them. We send them our condolences, and if we’re close enough to them we visit and spend time trying to console them. Many of us Christians purpose to celebrate the life of our loved ones instead of mourning their death. When we do mourn the death of someone, we are more sorry for ourselves than the deceased. We are sorry that we will no longer have the pleasure of their presence in our lives. This is especially true of someone who is close to us--family or close friends--and even more so if the deceased is a Christian. We believe that the deceased in the Lord are with the Lord and consequently no longer suffering the cares and woes of life. If their lives were great we still believe that being in the presence of the Lord is beyond any pleasure that we could ever have experienced on earth. We believe that if we have lived a good Christian life and have done all we know how to identify and have accomplished the purpose that God had for our lives, we will spend eternity in peace and in the joy of His presence. This is indeed cause for celebration and reason to be relieved of any fear of death. 

Death is not the cessation of life; it is only the cessation of earth life as we know it. We will all live forever. It is a simple matter of address. I imagine that when saints believe they are coming close to the end of earthly life, they begin to examine their lives to make sure they have done or are doing all they can according to God’s will for their lives. When the clock starts winding down and time seems short, we become tired and begin to feel our vulnerability more than in our youth. We need and ask God for a bit more help to make it through our latter days. This is something we should do throughout our lives, not just when we feel we’re running out of time. The truth is we can never live this life as God would have us to on our own. (Jn. 15:5) We always need the guidance of the Lord to help us reach our highest levels of productivity and potential. We need to periodically assess our activities and the things we spend our time on to make sure we are not wasting time because once we’ve wasted it, we can never get it back. If we want to fulfill God’s will and purposes for our lives He will make sure we have everything we need to accomplish just that. When we have learned to love, trust, obey and reverence His will, Word and ways, we have His joy as our strength. (NEH. 8:10) We have the assurance that He will never leave us or forsake us.(Heb. 13:5) He is indeed our “Precious Lord.”