It was a hot summer day and I was doing the normal thing a kid would do. Swim! I was having a blast in the large pool with my family, unaware of what was about to happen. I decided to take a dive under the large floating tube that my mom was sitting on.
I gracefully swam underneath her and came up on the other side to take a breath…or so I thought.
As I tried to surface for air, I felt my head hit something large instead. I was underneath the tube, not on the other side.
I dove back down to escape the tube, but felt something violently grab my hair and hold me under.
I immediately panicked as I reached for my hair to pull it loose. A large chunk of hair was wrapped around a plastic ring sticking out of the bottom of my mom’s tube. I tried to rip my hair off but it wouldn’t budge. Then I really panicked.
Thrashing violently under water, I tried to hit my mom’s tube to get someone to notice me. Nobody did. My air was almost out. I reached up one more time and pulled my hair will all of my strength.
It ripped loose.
I swam to the top and inhaled the largest breath I have ever taken. My life was spared.
From that moment on, I knew God had me alive for a reason.
I could have easily drowned at eleven years old, but I didn’t. My near death experience at the pool that day sticks vividly in my memory. As I’ve grown older I’ve learned something important that I didn’t know back then.
I’m alive for a specific reason. You’re alive for a specific reason. God spared my life that day because it wasn’t my time to go. There was still work to be done.
Did you know that approximately 155,000 people die every day in the world? That’s a lot! But guess what? If you’re reading this right now, you’re not dead yet. And that fact alone means that God still has work for you to do on this earth.
So what are we, as Christian girls, supposed to be doing for God on this earth?
What does He expect from us?
Here are four foundational things that God wants you and me to do as Christians:
• To know God’s Word.
• To keep God’s commands.
• To be a witness for Jesus Christ.
• To make disciples of the nations.
Live like you’re going somewhere.
Even though we’re alive and well today, we have no idea what tomorrow holds for us. Because we’re young, it feels like we’re going to live forever. But we’re not. Our life is really short in the grand scheme of things.
We must make the most of it while we can.
“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14).
Thankfully, if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, you’re going to heaven when you die. Death does not need to be feared.
In heaven, we will each be rewarded for the way we honored and served God with our lives on this earth (1 Corinthians 3:11-14, Matthew 16:27). Once we’re in heaven though, the game is over. No going back.
Now is the time to live your fullest for Christ.
Do you feel like you’re living your Christian life as committed to God as you can? Do you strive to study and know the Bible, to obey God’s commands, to share the gospel of Jesus, and to disciple and teach others?
Statistics have proven that ten out of ten people die, so let’s live all out for God while we can.
- Have you given much thought to the topic of dying and heaven?
- Does death make you nervous or scared to think about it?
- Have you ever had a frightening, almost death, experience like I did?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
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