Sometimes I think we forget where we really belong.
{psst…it’s not here}
We scrap and complain and scratch for more…more stuff, more influence, more followers, more comfort, more technology, more clothes, more money, more experiences…and we forget we live in a tent…a tent to be picked up and moved as the Lord calls.
Can we haul it all along? Or will this acculmalation of stuff, success, and stature hold us back? Will it hinder us from being people the Lord is not ashamed to call his own?
Will we go out of our country like Abraham, packing it all up with no turning back, following only the voice of the Lord? Will we go when we don’t know the destination? Will we obey when we can’t fully comprehend the situation?
Will we live for the promise even if we can’t see it?
Will we be satisfied with the distance?
“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance…”
Are we seeking the country of our origin or are our hearts set on Glory Land? Have we taken up the call of sojourners…to live is Christ, to die is gain?
Or do we live in the pleasures of here and now, perhaps somewhere between Glory and this trodden dirt?
“…and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.”
Friends…a word of warning, we cannot look back. Looking back turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. Looking back is a sure-fire way to live a lukewarm life. We have moved from an earthly kingdom into a holy nation, a royal priesthood, living in marvelous light.
We should not be looking to the country of our origin. This kingdom, this God-designed life, is not meant for straddled living. We have to choose a kingdom, there is no dual-citizenship.
“And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.”
If there’s one thing I know in my years of packing it up and moving along, in all the times I’ve been “the new girl”…you can’t fully live in the present if you’re straining for the past. You will cease to live with your eyes trained behind you.
There is a far better country ahead of us.
Let us run toward it.
“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
