Created For Immortality

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Revelation 9:4

Not all fears are bad. Some are wholesome, even necessary for life. For example, Jesus said this about fear: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

In Revelation 9 those who deny God suffer an end far more dreadful than mere physical death. John Calvin explains why fearing God is a healthy idea for this life—and the next.

WALK WITH JOHN CALVIN
“If believers will consider for what purpose they were born, and what their condition is, they will have no reason to so earnestly desire an earthly life.

“God alone has the power of bestowing eternal life, or of inflicting eternal death. We forget God, because we are hurried away by the dread of men.

“Isn’t it very evident that we set a higher value on the shadowy life of the body than on the eternal condition of the soul; or rather, that the heavenly kingdom of God is of little importance with us, in comparison with the fleeting shadow of the present life?

“How else is it that the dread of other people prevails in the struggle, but that the body is preferred to the soul, and immortality is less valued than a perishing life?”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
When your body senses danger, it seeks an escape route. But where do you turn when your soul is in danger? Then no earthly refuge exists; there is no safety apart from God.

Eighty years in the body cannot compare with an eternity in heaven. But which takes priority in your decisions, your investments, your plans, your commitments?

Loving and serving God with your whole body and soul. There’s no greater command, no higher calling in this life or the next!