15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Fearing death places you in slavery to that fear. It paralyzes you, keeping you from living a full and rich life in Christ. But what do I do if I am afraid to die? Well, first I need to see if you are afraid of death or of dying. Not many people like the dying process. That is the time when there is pain, disease, sadness and longing. When many people think about death, this is where they concentrate. We all will die of something and most of us wish for a quick, painless death. But most of us will not have a painless death. In this day and age of medical advances, few people make it past the threshold of death without some intrusive procedure. For some, this time gets used constructively for closing the loops of their lives. They have long conversations with family and friends. They do some of the things they have wanted to do for many years, but kept putting it off. The recent move The Bucket List highlights this process in a very tasteful way. By the end of the movie the main characters have come full circle, closing the loop on relationships that were left unattended for too long. So, my first piece of advice if you fear the dying process, is to make time and take the effort to clear up your relationship loose ends. If it takes courage to talk to the ex-spouse, get the courage. If you have not spent the time you know you should have with your kids, change your ways. If you broke it off with parents, be the adult and get on the phone. Make amends, ask for forgiveness. Then start living each day not creating any more open loops. Now, if you are not afraid of the dying process, then you might be afraid of death itself, afraid of what comes after your brain waves cease. That is the eternal part of the fear of death. Are you in right relationship with God? Are you spending time mending that relationship? Are you getting to know the One with whom you will spend eternity? Do you know from the Scriptures what heaven is really like, as opposed to the pop-culture versions? If you have taken care of both of these two issues, and you are still in fear of death, please write. Let’s start a dialogue.
The Arnold Journey 