INTO YOUR HANDS

In the night a while back I kept hearing, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Of course these are the last words of Jesus before he died on the cross. The first martyr Stephen, just before dying said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts of the Apostles 7) Both scriptures are paraphrases from Psalm 31:5, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” But what I understood the Lord was asking me to do was to “commit my spirit into his hands.” I did not sense this was a pre-death preparation at all, but an invitation to commit my spirit now and always to the Father.

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) in his commentary said this: “Christ has hereby left us an example, has fitted those words of David to the purpose of dying saints, and has as it were, sanctified them for their use. In death our great care should be about our souls, and we cannot more effectually provide for their welfare than by committing them now into the hands of God, as a Father, to be sanctified and governed by his Spirit and grace, and at death committing them into his hands to be made perfect in holiness and happiness.”

Henry’s comments were verifying to what I heard in the night. So… if we commit our spirits to the Father now and death sneaks up on us we will be ready having already committed our spirits into his hands. Either way…we win.

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”  Jesus