Bible Reading: Obadiah 1; Revelation 9.
Memory Verse: “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” Revelation 9:6 (KJV).
Risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environment), often focusing on negative, undesirable consequences. Human beings generally do not like taking risk but we cannot live this world without taking risk. What is important is that you should anticipate the risk and plan for its mitigants so that if an undesired event happens, you already know what to do. Thus, someone who wants to build a house needs to estimate the cost of such a venture by doing all the preliminaries of getting the architect to draw the house, the structural engineer to design the structure, the Mechanical and Electrical Engineer to give what the electrical and mechanical needs of the house will be and the Quantity Surveyor will give the estimate of the cost of building using the input of the various engineers. That way the person who wants to build would have a fair idea of the cost and decide on how to fund it. That process is calculating the risk that he needs to take before commencing the building. This is why the bible tells us in Luke 14:28 (KJV), “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it ?”
But a number of people do the wrong thing by not calculating the risk of the most important thing in their lives. Living in eternity! A number of people believe there is no hell after this earth. The point here is that even if that is correct, you have not lost anything but what of if they are wrong and there indeed is hell! what is their mitigant for that risk? They have not calculated that risk and have no mitigants for it! That means they are ready to go to hell without any defence because ignorance is not an excuse.
It is, therefore, important to let anyone who is not prepared for heaven know that he is taking uncalculated risk and it is always devastating. Imagine what the bible says some of those people will go through. Revelation 9:5 (KJV) says, “And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.” And the bible says the pain would be so much that they would seek death but it will not come! Revelation 9:6 (KJV) expantiates further, “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
To imagine that people will go through this and even more is enough for everyone to calculate the cost of taking such a risk. Have you calculated your risk if you do not make heaven and what is your mitigant? The only mitigant is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and live a life of holiness!
Action point: If you have not accepted Jesus, accept him as your Lord and Saviour and ask him to forgive you your sins and decide not to go back to sin anymore. If you have backslided, you also need to renew your pledge to him.