Devotions from Steadfast Lutherans

Heavenly Father, You have implanted in us a natural affection for our family and friends. Sanctify this love, so that we might not love anything more than You. Bring to remembrance the words of Jesus, so that by faith, we might truly and rightly love one another and our Lord. Amen.

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7)

Dear Jesus, You have defeated the grave for us, turning it from a treacherous enemy into the safe door through which we enter into eternal life. Keep us firm in the true faith, that enduring to the end, we may receive the blessings of Your salvation. Amen.

When we die, when we must give up our soul and depart this life, we do not commend our soul to a stranger. We certainly do not commend our soul to an enemy. Rather, we commend our soul to Jesus Christ, who called us to eternal life in His Word and will raise our mortal body to be reunited with our soul in immortality and eternal life. In that life to come, there is only peace and joy. There, it is eternally safe, eternally blessed.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! – Job 19:25-27

What faith knows it knows only by the Word of God, which is more sure and more certain than anything we learn by sight or experience. The Christian learns that what God reveals to him must be known and discerned by faith and not by sight. So it is with the resurrection of the body – what we know by faith overrides what we know by sight and experience. Our bodies will return to the ground (unless the Lord returns first), but we know by faith that He will raise that body to eternal life.

Dear Jesus, protect us from the evils that come against us. Do not abandon us but keep us safely in Your care. And on the Last Day, give us the victory over death by raising our bodies to life. Amen.

2 Jesus, my Redeemer, lives;

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. – Romans 6:9

Lord Jesus Christ, graciously our faith renew; help us bear our crosses, learning humbleness from You, peace mid pain and losses, may we give You love for love, hear us O our Savior, that we may in heaven above, sing your praise forever.  Amen  (adapted from the last stanza of “Jesus I will Ponder Now”)