I’m convinced that one of the reasons Jesus wants me to think about Heaven (and teaches me to do so in His prayer) is the encouragement that comes from it. “I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger, a traveling through this world of woe, but there’s no sickness, toil or danger in that BRIGHT LAND to which I go.” I wonder what my life could be if I carried an accurate perception of that BRIGHT LAND. Keep praying, dear friends. He is not only teaching us how to pray, He is teaching us how to think.
Yes, Lord, we praise you for your faithfulness in giving us (more and more) the mind of Christ.
As I drove to work today I was reminded of several months ago when I stopped to give a homeless man a $20. I had been having a good week with the Lord and was more than willing to give something to someone else in His name. The man reached out to grab it and looked me in the eyes (surprisingly with a very normal/not insane look in his eyes) and said, “Well, good morning your highness….tell the King I said hello, would you? I chuckled, responded that I would and said God Bless You. As I drove off and all throughout the day, I kept thinking that what he had said was right. How different from the way I usually see myself. {With all due respect, it is my admittedly limited understanding that} Poor wayfaring stranger is not what the Word says about me. It says that I am a child of the true/living God. I am an heir of God. (Rom (8:16). I am a part of a royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:9). I have been clothed with garments of salvation and wrapped with a robe of righteousness (Isa 61:10). I am his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that I might walk in them (Eph 2:10). I have been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge of my inheritance (praise be to God!) {Eph 1:13-14}. I am the fragrance of Christ to God among the world (2 Cor 2:15). I am salt. I am light. Most of all, I am unconditionally loved.
I know this is probably “a little different”, but when I think about heaven I think about how absurd it is to trust that for all eternity I will be loved and provided for if I do not trust Him to do that (that He is doing that) in the short time I am here on earth. I frequently have to remind myself of this, though.
Since as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Prov 23:7)….I am encouraged even more in my New Year’s resolution to read through the bible this year with an eye to what God says/thinks about me, really believe it and thus act like it is true. I want to line up with the Word in this regard and grow up into my inheritance.
Thanks again for doing this Pastor Guthrie. Obviously, I am finding your comments thought provoking.
Whoever wrote “Wayfaring Stranger” — whether enslaved or impoverished — so looked forward to heaven’s “bright land.” I, on the other hand, cling to this world and all its trappings. It’s good for me to remember Revelation 22:5:
“And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (ESV). Truly a new way of thinking.