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Anyone who knows me well knows that I don't travel light. I go nowhere without bags of clothes, reading material, art supplies, and crafts to make. My motto is "Let your bags be heavy and your heart be light." Now, if I were to travel far to a spiritual country, what would I pack? First, I would have to believe that such a place exists, and that the One who prepares it is faithful. Then, I could think about what to pack. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham and Sarah saw a heavenly homeland, but didn't experience it in this life. However, they believed the promise as truth, because God Himself had made the promise.
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13-16 NKJV)
Abraham and Sarah had the choice of returning to their home country, but they moved forward to Canaan, embracing God's promises. Even dying in their faith, they still believed them to be real for us, their spiritual descendants. We are the ones who received the greatest gift of all: Jesus, the Son of God. Don't we have a greater reason now to keep going, to keep enduring? Because Jesus went ahead of us to prepare a heavenly home, living by faith can be easier. Here on this side of eternity, things aren't perfect, and many wrongs are never made right. When we see the Lord's heavenly country, even from afar off, it becomes a spiritual reality. It shapes how we live day by day. Faith in God is not a theory to follow, nor is believing that only what can be measured, seen, and calculated is real.
Do you have the courage and faith to believe that God, the maker of heaven and earth, is real? Do you trust Him to prepare a heavenly home in eternity for you to live in? When we do, it changes the way that we live and what matters the most to us in this life, as "strangers and pilgrims". Let's embrace this amazing faith in the Lord our God!
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for being our God and for Your promise of a heavenly and eternal home with You forever. May the sense of Your presence and faithfulness renew our hope each day. Amen.
Copyright © 2022, by Shirley Moulton <shirley_moulton@PROTECTED>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Used with the permission of PresbyCan and author.
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