Key Bible Verse: I live in eager expectation and hope that … my life will always honor Christ whether I live or I die (Philippians 1:20). Bonus Reading: Phil. 1:20-24

James Boice, pastor of Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church, was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. A few weeks before his death in 2000, he fielded two questions from his congregation:

Should they pray for a miracle?

"You're free to do that, of course. But the God who's certainly able to do miracles is also able to keep you from getting the problem in the first place. So, although miracles happen, they're rare by definition. I think it's more profitable to pray for wisdom for the doctors. Above all, pray for the glory of God. God was most glorified in Christ's death; He didn't deliver Jesus from the cross, though He could have."

How should they interpret his impending death?

"Remember two things. One, God is in charge. When challenges like this come into our lives, they aren't accidental. It's not as if God somehow forgot what was going on and something slipped by. But two, God is also good. Everything He does is good. His will is pleasing and perfect to Him; therefore it should be perfect to us. If God does something in your life, would you change it? If you'd change it, you'd make it worse. So that's the way we want to accept it."

—Erwin Lutzer in The Vanishing Power of Death

My Response: I'll trust God to control what I was never meant to control: my life.

Thought to Apply: Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.—C.S. LEWIS (British scholar)

Adapted from The Vanishing Power of Death (Moody, 2004) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, help me match my stance toward physical death with my confidence in the eternal life You gave me.

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