Searching for a Place of Belonging
I spoke with a young lady a couple of weeks ago who shared something of which I can completely relate. In her words she said, “The older I get there’s no place that I feel totally at home.” This woman is married, has children, she and her husband serve the Lord and God has gifted her in her calling. I understood what she meant and was in no way alarmed. I expressed to her that in my own journey I too have had a longing that this world has yet to fulfill. There was a shared gratitude for all of the goodness of God on our lives. We both counted our blessings of being children of God and recipients of Christ’s grace and redemption. There was mutual praise for how faithful the Lord has been to direct our lives in wisdom and mercy. The seasons of trials and tests have been met with God’s unfailing strength and tenderness. And just the fact that we are allowed to serve Him is still so humbling. It was a sweet conversation of fellowship in our Lord. But the underlying longing cannot be ignored! Is there something wrong with this? Absolutely not! It is a heavenly longing for a place of belonging.
Phil 3:20-21 reminds us, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 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.“
Our True Home Is in Heaven
On this earth believers live a dual existence – we are in Christ yet we are also in this world. When we are in union with Jesus, He supplies His disciples with peace and nothing, Scripture states, can make them stumble. But because our hearts are so very human we yearn for what our eyes can see and what our hands can touch. We so easily become consumed with the temporal things of this world which hold so little lasting peace and joy. The world will never be able to secure anything permanent for the child of God. Blessings to be enjoyed yes. But lasting contentment and settledness no. God designed it that way. And so we continue longing for a place of belonging.
It was Saint Augustine who said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
God desires for us as believers to set our sights on heaven where our citizenship lies. The alternative is to waste our lives searching, seeking and wishing for worldly wants which will never fully satisfy our inmost longings. Let this truth anchor our journey, God wants His children to long for their heavenly home – eagerly awaiting our Savior from there.
Elisabeth Elliot said, Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.
What sweet anticipation for all those who have placed their faith and hope in Christ! Our search for a place of belonging, a true sense of home will finally be met.
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