A fear of death is what motivates the choices many people make in this life.  Where they place their trust will produce either peace or turmoil, depending upon who or what they follow. 

Not all the choices people make to preserve their lives are good. Some of those choices become evil and invite dark spirits to come and deceive those under their control. At some point, for those who have gained wealth and its resulting power and have not aligned those things with the Spirit, the fear of death will be what controls their life. Hanging onto the remaining days of this life becomes their major focus. They will become desperate and will do anything to hold onto their false hope, even believing lies.

For a follower of Jesus, the Lord has conquered death. Our redemption robbed death of its power to influence our decisions. Paul wrote, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory” (I Corinthians 15:55). Death has been conquered by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and our union with Him.

For those who do not believe in the Lord, death becomes the last frontier of their existence. Without the Lord, their struggle to hold onto the remaining days of their life will begin to affect everyone and everything in a negative way. Believers are not immune to this fear. Until we understand the fullness of our salvation, we can look and sound like the unredeemed and fearful world when we talk about death and its finality. 

For those who have put their trust in the Lord, death is the doorway to something wonderful that no book of theology or teaching can describe. Our death is a gateway into a place the Lord has prepared for us. What He has prepared is wonderful and beyond the greatest leaps of our imagination.

Peace is not the by-product of accumulating more wealth or gaining worldly wisdom. It comes from trusting in the Lord that what He said about life and death is true and that He will not fail us when our time of departure from this life arrives.  We will die in peace knowing our eternal future is secure in Jesus.