Proverbs 7:19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey.
The longing we Christians often feel in our hearts for home is a longing for the time we will be living with our Lord in eternity. This feeling of homesickness is often manifested in spending all we have on the dream home, kitchen, and other merchandise. We sometimes invest all emotion and money into moving to the dream country that seems to have a welcoming culture where we think we will fit in.
We end up looking for an unattainable peace of mind because of the frantic and hectic lives we live. Literally, looking for peace in all the wrong places. We think of this dream life way over there somewhere. If we could just find it, we would finally be home.
We come up with these unrealistic comparisons of joy and peace from our youth and days gone by when things were so much better. The problem is that our hearts and memories are very selective and we end up creating a fantasy past of joviality and a life that was so much easier to live. Eccl. 7:10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
The word of God asks us not to say, “Things were better way back when,” but to look forward to the blessing and preparation of the eternal home our Lord and Savior has prepared for us. John 14:2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. Being where Jesus dwells is home.
Our human nature is to find a comfortable place and live there. However, the Spirit of God compels us to move forward with His plan for His kingdom here on earth and it often causes chafing to our comfort zones to the point of unease. We start looking in the rear-view mirror thinking we have left something important behind. Because our focus is in the rear-view mirror, we run amuck on the road ahead of us messing up the plan God has for us. We then sit there crying for the good old days and lose the vision God had in our hearts. Ex. 16:3-A The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.
How interesting that the Israelites had already forgotten they had been slaves under extreme bondage and now they were longing at selective memories of a moment in time, from way back when. Num. 11:5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost–also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Is that what you remember? Let me ask you this question, oh Israelites: “Do you remember this prayer to your God?” Ex. 2:23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
The Israelites had forgotten they were where they were because they had asked God to help them out of bondage in Egypt. Are we not doing the same thing? We ask Jesus to come into our hearts and be our Lord and Savior. Then God does what we ask and life changes from that moment on.
Of course, things are going to change, and some of the changes will be at odds with our thinking because we are not God. We are not going to continue living our old way of life. The Lord is going to help us become a son of the living God. Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
It is interesting that a lot of the counselling pastors and counsellors do for people are basically reminding them that they are where they are because they prayed and God answered their prayers. Then with indignation, they say, “That is not how I wanted the prayer answered! I was better off back then.” Oh really? Back then when you were on your way to hell and were strung out on all kinds of addictive substances and behaviors? Back then when you were friendless and making life choices from a weak and corrupted conscience?
No, saints. You cannot go back to the good old days. You are here today and now. Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. The longing for home is a righteous feeling because it is engrafted into our spirit through the work of the cross. Phil. 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
As odd as it sounds, we are Pilgrims in a strange land because the earth groans under the weight of sin right now. Rom. 8:22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
When the Lord establishes the new heaven and new earth we will say with a full heart, “I am home. Praise you, Lord Jesus, praise your wonderful name, for I am truly home.” Keep the eyes of your heart looking forward to where God is leading because you are truly getting closer to home. May the peace of God fill your heart with the joy of the Lord. In Jesus name.
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