St Peters RC Church Hamilton

“Be a source of comfort and hope to all those who carry the burden of sickness in body or mind...May Your loving gaze bring wholeness to brokenness and light out of darkness. Amen.”

(Timothy Menzies prayer cont.)

Lord, I experienced a most troublesome time, of fear, a fear of dying. I was advised to pray for a happy death, but find this very strange and hard to do.

I thank You however for the actual help You gave me through a great number of sacred Scriptures as reference to these points. I believe the content, and this emboldens my faith.

My conviction becoming firmer as I claimed a particular passage Your Holy Spirit had highlighted to me, gradually the fear retreated.

It has not altogether gone, so I must keep praying to this end, but I certainly can see how effective it is to apply the sacred texts to my own life. Thank You.

When I read that our Father is merciful and know this to be true, I feel foolish for giving in to fear. That fear of death was a fear of the unknown I thought.

Yet death is not the unknown once we become a believer in You, Lord Jesus, our Healer and Saviour. Death You show us is but an opening to eternity.

Thank You that You promise to return to us, so we can be wherever You are. Thank You that You make us of right standing in our Father’s eyes, so He hears and answers our prayers.

When I cry for help, I am answered. What mercy! Oppression and depression have no place in the life of a Christian, for You are our eternal joy.

“For we do not have an eternal city here on earth, but we are looking forward to the heavenly city that is to come.” (Hebrews 13 v 14 The Truth)

Let there be a continuous offering of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord God, for all He has done for us, through gifting us Your life, death and resurrection, Lord Jesus.

To know You as the living and abiding Word of God is such a comfort and an assurance. Thank You for accepting this position so as to benefit mankind continuously.

Lord Jesus, as You fulfil each and every promise our Father ever made to us, we can feel confident when we hear the words, “ ‘I have called you by your name, you are Mine’.” (Isaiah 43 v 1)

It is because of Your love for us, Lord Jesus, we enjoy this privileged status of being adopted children, safeguarded from whatever it is that threatens to harm us, or destroy us.

“ ‘Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul’,” (Matthew 10 v 28) the instruction is plain enough. The Trinity alone have the power over life, death, heaven and hell. You call us to a holiness which will conquer all fear of death as we become loyal in our love of the Trinity.

Please continue to help me and anybody else who fears, especially fears dying, to combat this unnecessary wrong. May the Spirit remind us to pray and express our concern openly, seeking mercy.

“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), I have put my trust. I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56 v 3, 4)

Flesh, myself or others can lead astray by temptation. But thankfully “When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back,” (Psalm 56 v 9) this I know, because God is for me.

“Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God;” (Psalm 56 v 12) for I believe in the rescue made by the Lord Jesus at the †, a sure sign of Your merciful and compassionate love towards us.

“I will render praises to You. For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the land of the living?” (Psalm 50 v 12, 13)

Yes, this is so! Whenever fear creeps back to assault me, I will try and recall the anecdote Lord Jesus, when You walked on the water and the sea of Galilee raged stormily.

Understandably Your disciples were alarmed and called out urgently, for when they saw You coming across the water, “...they were troubled, saying ‘It is a ghost’ and they cried out in fear.” (Matthew 14 v 26)

What a lesson I have to learn from Your response. “Immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying ‘Be of good cheer! It is I, do not be afraid’.” (v 27) What a comfort!

This reminds me of the very first time I felt Your response when I was afraid. Your reply was so instantaneous and lovingly, helpfully supportive, I cannot remember what the fear was!

But what You said then must still apply now: “ ‘In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’.” (John 16 v 33) This I will cling on to, thank You! Amen.

Lord, after writing this I read “Jesus shared in our humanity, having flesh and blood like us, so that through His death on the cross, He could utterly destroy the devil, the one who holds the power of death.

Now all those who have spent their lives in bondage because of their fear of death and what lay beyond, are set free. These are the people of faith, the true descendants of Abraham. It is those He has raised to His glory’.” (Hebrews 2 v 14, 15, 16)

Thank You so very much for Your assurance on a subject which disturbs many people. Please help me to remember the reference for recall, if I or anybody has a wobble!