Precious Promises

Our church dealt with three funerals over the weekend. It's always hard to say goodbye to those we love and I never know just what to say to those who are grieving. Everyone always says the same things, We're praying for you, or, God knows what's best. I've said those very things to people. Having lost my brother a few years ago I know that, being on the receiving end of those comments, people mean well, but the words seem to do little in bringing comfort.

I decided to do a study on promises from God yesterday and because we were dealing with so many deaths and broken hearts, my first study on precious promises of God was on being caught up with Him!

I Thessalonians 4:13-18 "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

We have a promise that Christ is coming back for us. It's not going to be just an angel or two that come to escort us to Heaven, it will be Christ Himself!!

I remember Brother Curtis Hutson saying that if the Lord came back while he was still alive he would be a little bit jealous because he wanted to be one of the first ones to go! The dead in Christ shall rise first. The grave will no longer hold those bodies, but they will be caught up in the air to meet Christ. And once that happens, the believers that are alive and remain will be caught up with Him also and we will forever be with the Lord!!

These are words of comfort to those that have lost a saved loved one. These are words that bring hope and cheer during those long nights when sleep just will not come. These are words that fuel the desire and longing to leave this world behind for a world where there will be no more goodbyes. A world where graves do not exist.

Parents will hold their children. Spouses will be reunited. Friends will embrace. And best of all, there will be Jesus.

This, indeed, is a precious promise.