Confidence in the Lord

For Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Proverbs 3:25-26

Do not be afraid of sudden terror
or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,
for the LORD will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.

You go to the doctor and a routine checkup reveals and unexpected and dreadful condition.

You walk down the street in a dangerous city, never sure of what lies around the corner.

Fear of death is a great impediment to living righteous life in the present. It can cause paralysis and direct us to "save our life" only to find we will still lose it.

Knowledge of the resurrection found in our Lord is our assurance in the face of death. We know through faith in the resurrected Christ that we will not be caught in the grave forever. We have confidence in what we do now for the Lord who will raise us.

Athanasius described this phenomenon, using it as a 'proof' of the change brought by Jesus resurrection

A very strong proof of this destruction of death and its conquest by the cross is supplied by a present fact, namely this. All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the Saviour, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Saviour has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection. But that devil who of old wickedly exulted in death, now that the pains of death are loosed, he alone it is who remains truly dead. There is proof of this too ; for men who, before they believe in Christ, think death horrible and are afraid of it, once they are converted despise it so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and themselves become witnesses of the Saviour's resurrection from it.

quote taken from On the Incarnation