Are you a stranger in this world?

Heb 11:13  All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  NASU

  

The heros of the faith all had one thing in common- they were strangers in this world. A stranger is one who feels out-of-place because they are not at home. Everyone else looks content and happy to be where they are, but your not because your are still not in your own home.

This is the way it is for all Christians in this life. We occasionally lose focus on this for two reasons:

 Sometimes we are too content with our lot now. That is, because things are for the most part okay in our lives, we really have no real longing for heaven. Our longing to be in glory with Christ is numbed by the cares of this world. Remember that Abraham was a wealthy man, never the less “he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

The second condition that makes a Christian ripe for forgetting he is a stranger is tribulation. When we are going through a time of testing, many times our turmoil is the result of being discontent with our lot. That is, something is not the way we would like it to be. We need money, we need better health, we need more love, we need something in order to be content. This search for the “something else” can blind us to the fact the we are strangers in this world. It is here we remember the Apostle Paul. While he was in prison for Christ sake, he did not look to temporal freedom to make him happy, but he looked to the eternal freedom which comes in the next world- Phil 1:23 “But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;…” NASU (Also read 2 Cor. 4:16-18)

Paul understood so well the thing we must always remember about our being strangers here now- 

2 Cor 5:1-2  For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven NASU

 

Alpheus