I’m a sentimental person.I keep cards, letters, ticket stubs, and even rocks that remind me of
places I’ve been in the past.But at
times, I’ve spent too much time looking back, questioning and dwelling on
things I can’t change.I know that God
uses our circumstances to grow us, change us, and make us more like Christ, but
His intention isn’t for us to live in the past.The past is over.It’s done.If God meant for us to continue in that same
place, He would have kept us there.If
He’s called us out, it’s to move on to something better.And we can’t reach those blessings unless we’re
willing to let go of the past.
When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, they
grumbled because they missed the cucumbers, melons, and fish of Egypt (Numbers11:5).If I were Moses, I probably would
have said something like, “Oh, you miss the melons, do you?What about the slavery, remember that?Do you miss that, too?”Only I’m not Moses.I’m one of the Israelites, too often stuck in
my own past.
It’s important to remember God’s past faithfulness and
blessings.He provided for the
Israelites, even when they were enslaved in Egypt, and He’s blessed me in the
past.But remembering God’s past
blessings shouldn’t bring sadness if He’s now chosen to take those things away (Job1:21).It should instead bring
encouragement that if God has been faithful in the past, He will continue to be
faithful in the future (Philippians 1:6).
The Israelites didn’t have cucumbers and melon in the
wilderness, but God did provide them with manna.And they never could have made it to the
Promised Land if they hadn’t left Egypt.
"If they had longed for the country they came from, they
could have gone back. But they were
looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called
their God, for he has prepared a city for them…
…It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not
fearing the king’s anger. He kept right
on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible."
-Hebrews 11:15-16, 27
God, help me to keep my eyes on You alone, because You hold
my past, present, and future in Your hands.
“Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant
inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”
― C.S. Lewis, The
Problem of Pain
I feel more and more homesick every
day.There are plenty of great things
about this life, but there is also so much hurt, pain, and brokenness, and I
know this is not how it’s meant to be.I
know God can and will use all of this for His glory, but it’s getting harder
and harder for me to endure daily.Everywhere I look, people are suffering, children are dying,
relationships are ending, friends are sick, people are lonely and hurting.
I know
that God’s plan is perfect and so is His timing, but as I go through my own
(relatively minor) difficulties, there are so many times I wish I could see
God’s plan for me, to know what is ahead and how all the pieces of my life fit
together. But I
am beginning to realize that, actually, God already has told me the end of my story:
Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.
And the sea was also gone.And I saw the
holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband.I
heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his
people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will
be with them.”-Revelation 21:1-3
He makes all things new, and He is
making me new, too:
Just as we are now
like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
-1 Corinthians 15:49
Someday I will be in heaven with
Jesus, worshiping Him for all eternity and finally
living as He created me to live.
The pain and suffering here on
earth is a reminder that I’m not home yet.Pain itself is not a good thing; it’s a symptom of our broken world.And every day, it seems to get worse and
worse.
The
natural response when you see something (or someone) that is broken is to want
to fix it, to want to say or do something that will make it better.But we can’t do it on our own.The more I see the brokenness in the world,
the more I long for my true home in heaven, where everything will finally be as
it should be.I also long more for
others to know that same peace and assurance.
There
is only One who can truly fix what is broken.So why doesn’t He just do it now?
“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in
our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf
world.”-C.S Lewis
Everyone who experiences pain knows
this truth:This is not how it’s
supposed to be!This is not how we are
supposed to live!But not everyone knows
that there is another option, a better way to live.
Despite the fact that there is
legitimate evil in the world, God is able to redeem anything for His glory, and
He will do it, because His reputation
is at stake (Isaiah 48:11).He can use
pain and suffering to bring people to Himself, and He often uses us to do it.
Pain
seems to affect me so much more now than it used to.It could be because I’m getting older and
myself and those I love are being more directly affected, but I think it’s more
than that.I’ve been praying that God
would break my heart for the things that break His and that He would help me to
see people as He does, and I believe He is answering that prayer.
The
more God breaks my heart for others’ pain and suffering, the more I should
desire to share His promise of hope and peace with them.He has made me an ambassador of His message of reconciliation—what an awesome
privilege and responsibility!
So we are Christ’s
ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we
plead, “Come back to God!”-2
Corinthians 5:20
As much as our world seems to be growing
increasingly divided over moral issues, people still need and want hope.Without our connection to our Creator, we all
have a void inside, waiting to be filled.It may even be through pain that God reveals it to us.And He has entrusted me (and all believers) with His message of hope.If I’m doing my job of truly demonstrating
Christ’s love in everything I do and say, people should want to know Him and,
in turn, might come to long for their true home as well.
“The mold in which a key is made would be a strange thing,
if you had never seen a key: and the key
itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a
hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine
substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions.
Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you
alone, because you were made for it—made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is
made for a hand.”
