{category devotionals]"For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness. The upright will behold His face." Psalm 11:7"
What a promise! The reward when striving for righteousness in our lives is we shall behold His face! When you know the love of God as I do that is all I live for ultimately. I long for my eternal home with the One who created me, and I shall be free of this fleshly body with a sin nature I am imprisoned in until death. Death frees the believer in Christ to become what we were created to be and to be forever with the greatest Love of our lives.
I have been rebuked more than once for how I look forward to that transition we call death. It isn’t death for the true child of God. It is homecoming eternally where we belong! No more evil. No more sickness. No more pain physically. And no more hurting one another with lies, betrayal, and rejection. But what I look forward to most of all is knowing I cannot fail or disappoint my Lord and Savior ever again. We shall be like Him. We will be holy and righteous as He is.
I believe one of the best ways to deal with life is to stay focused on the eternal outcome the Bible describes in depth. I encourage you to spend more time on what God has to say instead of what man has to say. I was greatly comforted as I meditated on Psalm 9 this week. Please take the time to not only read the Psalm, but meditate on each verse. That is how we get it to go from head knowledge, and become deep within our spirits written on the tablet of our hearts. That is when we are transformed by the renewing of our minds as promised in Romans 12:1.
I was also in Hebrews 11 this week. This chapter will help us keep our focus as we are given example after example of the faithful ones of God who died in faith without receiving the promises. They gained approval from God by their faith. Circumstances on this earth cannot control our faith. We must rise above our circumstances believing in the promises to us found in the Word of God. Hebrews 1:1-2 declares what faith is:
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the men of God gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."
Following these verses we are given a long list of examples of people in the Old Testament who were imperfect, but their steadfast faith earned the approval of God.
Let’s look at verses 13-16:
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 earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had the 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 a city for them."
Perhaps we now need to ask ourselves what have we placed our faith in? What are we truly seeking in life at this moment? Have we made this world our home, and are we not strangers in it, but quite comfortable? Or do we believe this is as good as it gets? If we are strangers and exiles of this present world then we do make it clear to others we are seeking a country of our own. That country is heaven. That is our home. It is a far better place than the earthly dwelling.
As I read the last sentence I determined to make it even clearer to those around me my disdainment for the things of this world that are not of God.
If we read God’s Word, it allows us to see the reality of being a true disciple of Christ. We must allow the Word of God to define that to us, and no one else. Others may be ashamed of us as we long to be freed from this present world to arrive where God has prepared a city for those who are His, but He is not.
Until then we must occupy until His return. We are to live each day allowing Him to love and speak truth through us to a lost and dying world.
I would like to jump back to Psalm 11:19-20 for a final verse to meditate on:
"Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged before You.
Put them in fear, O Lord; let the nations know that they are but man."
In His love.
Teresa Roberts
Masterpiece Fitness
276-237-668000
Braveheart and I covered 16 miles on the New River Trail last week from Gambetta to Fries and back. Cooled off in New River at Fries, and in rambunctious, cold water in Chestnut Creek in Gambetta area. It’s the best way to survive humidity and heat.
