Contemplative Bible Reading

Matthew 10:28 (New Living Translation)

Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Most people I know – somewhere above 99% – fear death. If they say they don’t, put them in a swimming pool and try to hold their head under the water. I guess they will struggle to free themselves from death.

God created us with a will to live and a fight against death.

Okay, we fight death, but should we fear those who can only kill our bodies? When viewed from an eternal perspective, 70 years or so of life on earth in mortal bodies doesn’t seem like much.

Perhaps it is our inability to view things from an eternal perspective that is one of our great weaknesses. Satan exploits that weakness and wins when he has us say,

Join fill-in-the-blank now and ask for forgiveness later.

(I heard that line some movie.)

So what do we do? Give in to the short-term perspective? The other perspective is so difficult, really impossible without God’s help. Ooops, maybe that it is. Maybe we should ask for God’s help to achieve the directive of the above verse.

Excuse me while I go pray.