My dad died at the age of 93. But most of his life he was afraid to die. He was not a man of faith. As a child he grew up in a home with a drunkard for a dad who almost worthless as a husband and father. His mom and his dad did not get along. They had some terrible arguments. My dad as a child went to church for awhile and believed in God although he never had a personal relationship with Jesus. He was never saved. But He did believe. He would pray for his parents asking God to help his family. No help ever came and eventually my dad lost all faith and hope in God. From then on my dad was totally turned off to anything and everything spiritual. He was very hard hearted toward God. I grew up following after my dad. I too was a hard hearted atheist. No one could talk to me about God, church, the bible, etc. By the time I was 30 years old God finally woke me up and I got saved. From then on I prayed for my mom and dad and tried to talk to them about spiritual things. To make a long story short, my mom finally got saved shortly before she died at the age of 84. You can read about it HERE. My dad lived on another 9 years. He would never talk to me about anything other than “shop talk”, but he had conversations with my mom and told her that he was afraid to die. My mom told me this and when she did I immediately knew that my dad did not believe what he professed to believe … that “the grave is the end of everything in life”. I used that to reason with him over the years. He was already in his 70s. I confronted him saying to him that if he really believed the grave is the end he would not fear death. It was food for thought and I know it worked on him. I kept praying for him and my wife and I kept witnessing to him. Shortly before he died my wife led him to Jesus and he got saved.

I shared all of that about my dad as I am sure there are many who are afraid to die. And for anyone who does not know the Lord and have a saving relationship with Him there certainly is good reason to be afraid of dying. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. Going on a journey and not preparing for it is not a good thing.

There is no fear of death for those who are in Christ Jesus. They know they are ready to meet their God and be welcomed home.

My dad had that assurance before he died and he no longer feared death. He knew he was going home and had great things awaiting him. You can have that assurance too. Just call on the Name of Jesus in repentance … go toward Him with your sin and not continuing to turn away from Him. He wants to make a deal with you … He will take your sin and give you His righteousness in exchange. That is called “the Great Exchange”.

You can have the peace that passes all understanding. Peace which will see you thru right to the very end of this life that you know on earth. Peace which will take you over to the other shore into eternity. It is not the peace that the world gives. It is the peace that only God can give. God said “Oh death where is your sting? Oh grave where is your victory? Born again Christians need not fear death. To live is Christ and to die is gain. Only the lost fear death. And well they should!