I Am Alive For Ever and Ever – Greg Albrecht

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I Am Alive for Ever and Ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”—Revelation 1:17-18

You know, almost every time that God came to someone in the Bible to tell them he wanted them to fulfill a certain responsibility, he received a similar response. Moses said he wasn’t fit for the job because he had a speech impediment. Jonah of course ran away in the opposite direction. When Peter became more aware that Jesus was God in the flesh he told Jesus to get away—because Peter knew that he was a sinful man.

I absolutely relate to such stories. I know that we humans generally feel fearful and intimidated when God seems to be telling us what he has in store for us and virtually all of us have the same reaction: “God, I’m not qualified. You must have the wrong person. I don’t think I have what it takes to fulfill what you have in mind.” In reply, God could easily say, “You don’t think I know about your lack of qualifications?”

But in many cases we read about in the Bible, when God does respond to the fainthearted, he says, “Don’t be afraid.” God said it to Abraham when he made a covenant with him. Mary, an unmarried teenager, was impregnated by the Holy Spirit and was told by the angel Gabriel, “Don’t be afraid.” Over and over again Jesus told the disciples—”Don’t be afraid.” In our keynote passage (Revelation 1:17-18) I Am Alive for Ever and Ever is the comforting reassurance Jesus gave to John.

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