Dying grace and strength

(Maria Sandberg, 1880)  LISTEN to audio!  Download Audio

(You will find it helpful to listen to the audio above, as you read the text below.)

Many, including genuine Christians, suffer much due to the fear of death. But let us meditate on this assurance of our Savior, and see if faith in His blessed words will not chase away some portion, at least, of that fear of death which is so natural to man:
"I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever!
 And I hold the keys of death and the grave!" Revelation 1:18

Jesus your Savior has the keys of of death and the grave—that is, of the unseen world. Oh! believer, you have trusted your Savior often, and will you not trust Him yet again? You have trusted in Him, and have not feared coming trials—and will you not trust in Him for dying grace and strength?

He died to take away sin—the sting of death. He lives, yes, He is alive for evermore, to be with His people in their last hour, and to give them the victory over their last enemy, death!

How often does He give a visible triumph to His servants in a dying hour: Fears are taken away, joy abounds, and Jesus is present to conduct them over the river of death. Fear not, then, O timid soul. Do not be anxious about dying. Jesus will give dying grace, to His dying people.

Jesus, your Savior, has the keys of death and the grave.
Trust in Him who died for you, but is alive forever and ever!

"The last enemy to be destroyed is death!" 1 Corinthians 15:26

"Where, O death, is your victory?
 Where, O death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin . . . But thanks be to God!
He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

"He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign LORD will wipe away all tears!" Isaiah 25:8

" . . . our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Timothy 1:10

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!" Revelation 14:13