Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
To be willing to die for something puts everything else into perspective. Make sure you are willing to lay your life down for Jesus only. As Christians, we must not fear death. Live this life as a living sacrifice to our Lord. The best is yet to come, when you are a believer. When you aren’t afraid of something, the devil has no leverage.
When you aren’t afraid of death anymore because of your faith in Jesus, not only you live more joyfully, but other things change as well. Jesus is everything, everything else is secondary, including your own life.
Careers – If your life is secondary, your job is secondary. When I was in the car biz there was a guy we called to dye spots in the trade-ins. He has written on the side of his work van ‘I die daily’ (playing with the word dye.) Referring to 1 Corinthians 15:31 Some Pastors, who have never owned a business or worked a real secular job will criticize people who put scriptures on their business cards or vehicles. I’ve done both, I know how hard it is, so I will never criticize a man for proclaiming Jesus’ Word in any fashion he wants. It does cost business and promotions to do so. That man’s van lettering (his business motto), and his Christ like character/work ethic stuck with me for over 40 years.
Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Fear – I have almost died as a non-Christian and as a Christian. As a non-Christian, it was a horrible life and death struggle of pure, unadulterated terror. You don’t think to say the ‘sinner’s prayer’, you are just trying to keep on breathing. More than once did I go through that. I almost died as a Christian once. During Hurricane Mitch. Coming home from a ‘vigilia’. An all night prayer meeting. As we were crossing a bridge in an overloaded mini van (probably 20 people packed into a 10 passenger vehicle), the bridge collapsed and we landed roof first into a roaring river. The roof caved in and we were like sardines. Literally no able to move, and we were packed so tight that our lungs weren’t able to inflate completely and we were breathing all the oxygen. The driver wasn’t a Christian (and he wasn’t being crushed) so he was screaming in terror, using ever Christian sounding term and expression he had ever heard to make God save us. We were all Christians except for the driver. He was actually annoying the rest of us. I could hear the man underneath us drowning as the water came in, but he only screamed under water like one that I could here and he went to be with Jesus. The rest of us were just jammed together, praying and humming softly, in unison, waiting to slip out of our ‘earth suits’. I thought to myself, ‘hey! This isn’t so bad!!’ Then we got miraculously rescued! Ever since then though, I have had no fear of death. It’s nothing.
1 Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Worry – When you aren’t afraid of the worst possible outcome, why would you worry about the little annoying bumps in the road along the way. Cancer, mental illness, open heart surgery, war, combat, prison, financially problems, children’s health, pain, torture, children’s behavior problems, and any other thing you can think of along the way is all bound to death. So if you don’t worry about the final outcome, why would you be worried about the annoying little things along the way. What can they do to you? Kill you? If you are worried (which Jesus repeatedly tells us not to do) it is because you have taken your eyes off of Jesus.
https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Turn_Your_Eyes_upon_Jesus/
It’s amazing how problems just go away if you have the spiritual discipline of focusing on Jesus. Do you think Paul and Silas were worried? No. They weren’t worried about dying (remember Christians were being put to death, in horrible, torturous ways at this time). They weren’t worried about the end result, so they weren’t worried about the slight inconveniences along the way.
Acts 16:25And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
Sadness – The chick tract https://www.chick.com/information/article?id=cartoon-tracts&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmouZBhDSARIsALYcouoUE2O2k43uVff7qe9FmXAoF-uVto5LIIbJsy0FrG6QQMxajuQDIT4aAoQLEALw_wcB (tiny shoes) is about a little boy who died and went to heaven. A new believer at church, who I gave one to) was almost in tears when she read it. The little boy died,,, that was all she saw. Many of us loose people, all of us do. If they were believers our sadness is for ourselves only. The little boy went to heaven. That’s something to rejoice about. I explained it to her, but she was still dubious)
I read in the Bible about God killing Pharoah’s first born, then the psalmist said ‘God’s mercy is forever.
Psalm 136:10 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever:
I was in Cuba when I first noticed this. I was furious about it. So I went to my pastor there, Alejandro Peraza and I said how can this be??? How can God kill a baby and be merciful? He smiled and asked ‘where’s Pharoah today?’ I said, ‘probably in hell’. He said ‘and where’s the baby?’ I said ‘probably in heaven’ then I joined the psalmist saying
Psalm 136:10 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever:
Die as a Christian? Alllll good! Die as a non-Christian? You really don’t want that.
Once you are not afraid to die, only then you can truly live.