Are you longing for more?

Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/306c3914/are-you-longin...

While it is the only one we know,

this world is really not our home.read that again

Are you longing for more? Of course you are!

Different things shake off the doldrums and get our attention. Today, one thought grips me.

I know folks who look around at various things in our culture and then stand back and wring their hands in anxiety. As for me, I have some up close and personal things in my family in which I realize I have no control and could also give in to anxiety, and then I remember--

This world is not my home...

I am bound for a better place.

So are you.

The challenge is keeping our heads about us while we navigate the challenges, trusting God fully, maintaining an inner peace and yes, even contentment. Again, Paul is our example: "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.1 (Yes, and he was in prison when he wrote that) Friends, in obedience to God, we too are to learn what it means to be content, and walk in that, no matter what is happening in the world, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves personally.

Longings - honestly, just the word evokes emotion. Whether we are aware or not, we all have longings because things are just not as they ought to be. It is interesting that those commended for their great faith in Hebrews chapter 11 are noted to have been longing for a better country - a heavenly one.2 

"If you find yourself with a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, then the most probable explanation is that you were made for another world."3 That's just it--we were made for Heaven, made to be with God.

Paul explained this to the Philippians who he loved,

"We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.

And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior."4 

While we have glimpses of Glory to be sure, true joy and longings fulfilled will only come when we are in the presence of God forever.

John wrote about "a new heaven and a new earth," where God's dwelling place is among the people, and he will dwell with us, when we will be his people, and God himself will be with us and be our God. On that day, 'He will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."5 Oh, and there is so much more in Revelation chapter 21.

In the meantime, Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end.6

Each morning, each day we choose to live fully for the Lord . . . I love this take:

    "We each have one life, but this life has eternal significance. 

    What we do in this one life has infinite implications, and beyond that, 

    our stories are bigger than history. Our stories don't end when we do. 

    They are only the beginning of much greater stories,

the content of which we are completely unaware...

most of us underestimate how much God actually wants

to do in our lives and through our lives."7 

See, we all have God-given quivers with arrows we are meant to shoot, and we are not meant to die with our quivers full. 

And in the meantime - the time between now and Heaven, we love fully

because God loved us first, and because in loving, we are most like him. As Christ followers, it is so important that we express our love for him and for others. 

It is true. Our longings point us home. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.8  So yes, we have longings . . . and longings are a good thing as they point us home.

I want to remind you--we are Almost Home: song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lKdHXfpsFQ. 

Christine

PastorWoman.net

1 - Philippians 4.11-12

2 - Hebrews 11.16

3 - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

4 - Philippians 3.20

5 - Revelation 21.1-4

6 - Hebrews 12.2

7 - The Last Arrow: Save Nothing for the Next Life, Erwin Raphael McManus

8 - 1 Corinthian 13.12