With Waning Breaths

“Then he said to Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom,' Jesus said to him, ‘I assure you and most solemnly say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43 (Amplified Bible)

Each Thursday at noon a group of people from our church gather together both in person and virtual to pray for those who have sent prayer requests to our church. Out of all the overwhelming circumstances for which people need encouragement and hope, the one that breaks my heart most are the requests for a dying family member or friend who is not a believer. This morning I read that an individual has been given very little time to live and they are not in the family of Christ. As I was praying for the family such a powerful image came to mind. I pictured Jesus hanging on the cross with very few breaths left in His lungs. As He hung there in pain with His life ebbing away, He heard the man on the cross next to Him address Him. I can just picture Jesus using every bit of strength to turn His head to the criminal. He was asking Jesus to remember Him, referring to Him as Lord. And as one unbeliever chose to believe in a Savior, the Savior chose to receive him into His family in their waning breaths. I doubt anyone even heard them...I doubt anyone was even aware that a life who hung to die on earth had just been granted new life in eternity because of the other One on the cross.

We must pray for the salvation of others because that is their only hope. We cannot know the state of a person’s faith at the very end of their life. However, we can completely trust that God desires no one to perish. Only God knows when the knee bows and the mouth confesses He is Lord even if it is a private exchange when no one is looking or close by.

Just as Christ spent His last few breaths granting a miracle to the undeserved, He moves heaven and earth to grant our undeserved miracles. Some of our circumstances render us ‘lifeless hanging without hope’ until we remember to ask Him to attend to us in our suffering. With our last breath may we have the Lord’s name on our lips like the criminal. May our conversation be with Jesus no matter how dire our future appears. Despite our situations, Christ is always beside us offering new life. Be encouraged that Christ cares about our burdens and fully understands the gravity of our suffering.