Why I Can Face the Future Without Fear

In Psalm 23:6 I read, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.” (NLT)

Someday my life on Earth will end, but that won’t be the end of me. I’m going to live forever in one of two places: heaven or hell. One day my physical body is going to die, but while this happens, I’ll go on, because I was made to last forever.

How long is forever going to last? Forever!

God’s Word tells me why as a Christ follower, I should be most confident about the future: “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord . . . We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6, 8 NIV).

I will never know how to really live until I’m ready to die. Only a fool would go through life totally unprepared for something that everybody knows is inevitable. 

So I’m going to physically die someday. But because I’ve accepted Christ, I’m going to go to heaven, to “live in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6 NLT). In heaven, I’ll be released from pain, sorrow, suffering, depression, and fear. “He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone” (Revelation 21:4 The Message).

For a Christ follower, death is just a transfer, a promotion. It’s on to better things and no more problems.

Those truths should change everything! It doesn’t mean life is going to be easy. And it doesn’t mean I will always be happy, or always know what I should do, or that I will never sin again.

But it does mean I can face the future without fear. God has taken care of my biggest problem, my salvation. He is never going to leave me, and I will live with him forever!

In summary, God's goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life. I will get to dwell with him forever in heaven. God is the perfect shepherd who promises to guide and protect me throughout my life and into eternity. There are only two things that I do on Earth that I won't be able to do in heaven. One is sin and the other is to witness and assist non-believers.