Sometimes I forget this truth, and when I do it's like trying to put a puzzle together without all the pieces. I get angry, frustrated, and discouraged if I try to put a puzzle together without all the pieces. And I get angry, frustrated, and discouraged when I forget that I am an alien, stranger and a sojourner on this earth. If I have the understanding that I am a sojourner and a guest and not a permanent resident then things make more since to me.
“I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!” Psalm 119:19 Because I am a sojourner, I need God to give me directions! I often loose my way and become confused. Sometimes I get so confused that I think this is my permanent residence . I think this is my permanent home, and yet my heart is filled with a sense that something is missing. When I read God's Word, it's as if I'm looking at the picture that the puzzle is supposed to look like. When I compare the “home” I see described in Scripture to the “home” I have on earth I realize that I am a stranger here.
One piece of the puzzle that I often forget is that I am not only a sojourner but a guest. “For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.” (Psalm 39:12) When my daughter was two, a friend came to visit. She brought with her her two-year-old daughter. Faith was worried that the little girl would take her toys. I assured her that the little girl would understand that they didn't belong to her because she was the guest. I was wrong. The first thing the child did was to walk into my daughter's room and lay claim to every thing she saw. I am a lot like that little girl. I forget I am a guest and only God is the true owner.
When I find myself staring at this puzzling life, filled with angry frustration, there is only one remedy. I cry out with the psalmist, “I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!” When I do this He opens my eyes by faith so that I can see the missing pieces. He does for me what He did for the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11. “They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.”
Lord Jesus, please help me to remember that I am not home yet. Please help me not to grasp the things of this earth with greedy fingers. Remind me again that I am a guest. You promised that You were preparing a place for me and that You would someday come again and take me home to be with You. Until then, show me how to walk by faith in obedience to Your commands as a sojourner and a guest.
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