God has something better…

 

World news and local events have some Christians thinking that the return of Christ is eminent. It could be, yet the Lord has given me and my husband long-term projects which convince us that it is not next week.

The church at Thessalonica were in some confusion about this and wondered if they missed it. For that reason, Paul wrote and told them to calm down rather than being shook up:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2)

Why be shook up? Don’t we long to see the face of Jesus and the righteousness that He will establish when He returns? Aren’t we distressed about evil being called good and good being called evil? Why would we not long for the rule of Christ rather than the anarchy that seems worldwide? Is it because we have loved ones who are not ready? Or is it because some of us are hooked on the pleasures of this life?

Today’s devotional suggest that God’s people cannot be stable in their faith or follow the Lord fully if we are tied fast to anything else. If we are ready to live in the city of God, we must be detached from all that holds us here. The OT example is Abraham:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you… So Abram went, as the Lord had told him… (Genesis 12:1-4)

Thinking of my thirty-two relocations, I understand Abram more than if we had lived in one place all our lives. At the same time, I know the difficulty of leaving behind something that has become dear to me. The reason this man is an example is because he “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10)

Abram realized that as good as ‘home’ might be, God has something better. The ability to turn from life as I know it is easier when I am looking ahead rather than clinging to what is now. The NT says:

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:14–16)

Jesus said that He went to prepare a place for us. The Bible speaks of what God has prepared, not clearly yet as I understand Him more clearly, then my confidence grows in His ability and desire to make that eternal city more delightful than anything I’ve ever known.
This means letting go of what I know, not relying on anything but God. As Corrie Ten Boom said, “I have learned not to hold to anything too tightly for it hurts when God pries my fingers loose.”

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:26–29)

It is not me that God consumes but He shakes me loose from any idols that I might cling to instead of trusting Him. All idols will not survive. This term was first used in that connection:

Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:23–24)

PRAY: Lord, I get it. The stuff of this life cannot do any of what You do for me. "On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah" (Psalm 62:7–8) YOU ARE ENOUGH for now and forever!