Day #174 - Win, Win

The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Philippians 1:21

Photo by Alejandro Pérez on Unsplash

Have you ever been a part of a win-win situation?

Often in life it seems like when two parties are involved in a situation, one tends to be the winner and the other the loser. But there are situations in life that can allow both parties to experience a win. As a leader in the church, I love it when we get win-win situations. I pray for them. I thank God when things work out that way.

In Philippians 1, Paul is expressing how he is torn over whether he would prefer to stay and minister on the earth or go and meet Jesus to be face to face with the One his soul loved. What a profound statement, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” Paul had been so conformed to the image of Christ, he described his very life as Christ. Paul was a man of “the Presence” who had been walking with Jesus so closely. His life was all about Christ.

But Paul had this longing deep on the inside. While he loved to be present to represent Christ to the church at Philippi and where God would call him, he longed to be in the immediate presence of Jesus. For Paul this was a win-win, to live was Christ but die was gain. To die would mean that he would meet Christ face to face. Paul often deals with the now and not yet tension of our faith. We can experience this rich fullness of the presence of Christ in this life, but there will always be more of a gain for us in the next life.

When we are struck with grief over loved ones who have left us, we must remember that for those believers, it is such a gain for them in their death. Physical death for Christians is a gain, the gain of the full, eternal and unhindered presence of Christ. The Christian who grows in “the Presence” is not fixed on a morbid sense of death, but has an ache like Paul that is born out of a deep and precious love for Jesus, to be with Him forever.

This kind of longing in the believer creates a cry for the return of Jesus and causes us to move closer to Christ in this life. Oh that we may say with the apostle Paul, “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Lord Jesus, I give my life to You. You are worthy of all of me. May my life be Your life in me and through me. I long to be with You forever. As long as I may live, may I live for the day I will meet You face to face. Death will be gain to me, the gain of Your glorious eternal presence. May I grow deeper in Your presence in this life until I walk into the world to come. In Your name, amen.