READING: 1 Peter 1-5
“Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.”
1 Peter 2:11
I travel a lot, and it doesn’t take me long to figure out when I’m not home. If I’m traveling overseas, I don’t always understand the language. The customs seem strange to me. The food is different. How relationship develop, and just how much they mean in a given culture, are quite unlike what I know best. Means of transportation vary, but they most often don’t include my driving my own car like I do here in the States. It’s just different – and no matter how hard I try to fit in, I know it’s not home.
At the same time, though, I suspect I too often forget the same lesson about my real home: heaven. Peter reminded his readers of the first century that they were “sojourners and exiles” (1 Pet. 2:11)—also translated as “strangers and temporary residents” (HCSB), “aliens and strangers” (NASB), “foreigners and exiles” (NIV). That is, they may have been living in this world, but their residence was only a temporary one. They were, in fact, likely believers facing severe persecution. The fact that this world was not their home surely mattered if/when they faced the reality that life itself could be ending.
My fear is that I get too comfortable with being a part of this world. Sometimes, I think I may speak of heaven as my home but live as if what I have here is eternal. I’ve settled too much and have forgotten my pilgrim status in this world. I trust that today’s scripture reading, though, has begun to shift my thinking in the right direction.
ACTION STEPS:
- Consider for yourself: how comfortable are you as a citizen of this world? Are you too comfortable?
- Ask God to remind you about the temporary nature of your time here.
PRAYER: “Father, I’m too settled here. Help me to remember that I’m supposed to be just a pilgrim.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Hebrews 1-4