Overcoming Discouragement

By Knowing Hell is Defeated

Text: Revelation 1:9, 17-18

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for  

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, chapter 10 

More often than not, when Scripture refers to death, it's not referring to what happens to the human body when it ceases to   (Rev. 21:8)

Death in Scripture is referring to  

 is as real as  (Mt. 10:28; 13:41-42) 

Jesus holding the  means Jesus - not sin, not Satan - Jesus now decides what happens when someone dies. (Eph. 2:1-4)

In Christ we don't  when we  We  

The most pressing issue in our existence is what happens when we

And when we are "in Christ," the most pressing issue of my existence is done, resolved,

Everything else - all struggles, problems, griefs and heartaches of this fallen world that cause overwhelming discouragement when we focus on them - pale in  to this one reality. 

And when we stay  on this, we find ourselves full of strength and courage no matter what we are facing in life.