Lord of my life and Lord of my death

And you belong to Christ,

And Christ belongs to God. 1 Corinthians 3:23

 

Read John 11:20—27

The question of life and death is before me. The question of healing, and of how long I have still to live this life. It is bound up with the question of who Jesus really is. I like the way Jesus moved Martha towards relating these two things. She had not the benefit of Jesus’ own resurrection to work on yet, nor yet the miracle of seeing Jesus raise her dead brother to life. But already she was moving toward some answers when she expressed belief in Jesus, Messiah, Son of God. He was connecting things up for her. In her presence he was focusing onto himself what God was going to do way off in the distance. The resurrection life at the end of all things, it stood before her in Jesus and it stands before me now in Jesus.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Lord of life and the Lord of death. You declare what true life is, and what death itself really is by your resurrection. I thank you that I can join Martha in saying you are Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. Yet I see that you had more of yourself to show her than she yet knew. So deal with me as you did with her, and show me more of what I myself have been saying when I have declared this faith. For I can use words which mean more than I know. Tonight I pray that I may live joyfully and rest confidently in peace, knowing that you are Lord of my life and Lord of my death, that at my death I shall be in your hands, you who are the resurrection and the life.