Ecclesiastes 8:8 says, There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.  We do not have the ability to avoid death of the physical body when it comes.  We can do everything that the health care professionals tell us to do, but we still will not be able to avoid death.  In our war with death of this body we are always going to be the losers.  It is where the spirit goes that we do have control over, and that is the ultimate victory or defeat.  If we are followers of Christ, we go to everlasting life with Him.  If we are not, we go away to eternal separation.   We can never have a victory over physical death, but we can choose how we live our life.  These last few verses have warned against fatalism and a devil may care attitude as well.  Especially as God's people, we can never take the attitude that nothing we do matters.  I hear Christians today say that they don't want to get involved in the things of this world because everything is so evil. We, as followers of Christ, withdraw more and more from the world and then sit back and complain about how bad things have gotten.  We cannot remove ourselves from the world and expect it to get better.  To restate another truth from earlier, we are sent into the world to change the world.  We are not commissioned to simply wait and pray for the Second Coming, but to use this life, no matter how long or short it may be, to spread the good news of Christ.  We are not a defeated people, but we are everlastingly victorious.  Again, we cannot control the fact that one day, no matter how hard we fight against it, we will die, but but that should never cause us to live fearful or reckless lives.  We are to live victorious under the leadership of Christ.