Thursday, April 29: You’re still here!

Watching a talented gymnast doing flips along a balance beam, teetering high enough above the ground that a missed step could cause severe injury, is a less than peaceful picture. Sometimes, the balance between our heavenly home and our earthly visit feels exactly like that. Those of us who have found salvation in Jesus Christ have been told that we, even at this moment, are “seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” according to Ephesians 2:6. God, being outside of time, sees His completed work in us! So though we struggle in our earthly tent, the temporary home that God has given us for a time, this is not the culmination of His work in us.


Even as Christians, we have the tendencies to focus more on this earth than we do on heaven, as earth is tangible. We can see it, feel it, smell it, touch it and even taste it if we choose. A mud pie doesn’t get my taste buds salivating, like my thoughts of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, though. A desire to have children or grandchildren drives many Christians. Others seem to focus on seeing those near and dear coming to know the Lord. Others desire a bigger house, a better job or look forward to the freedom of retirement. Is the world supposed to be a friendly place for us?


4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 4:4-8


The double-mindedness discussed by James has to do with our worldly desires that often get in the way of our heavenly desires. Once again, when our hearts become reflections of God’s heart, then God gives us the desires of our hearts. Yet when our earthly desires get in the way, to grant us what we wish would cause us to stumble. God might do that just to demonstrate to us that He desires more for us than what we ever could imagine. Janis Joplin certainly missed the boat, and the car, with “Oh, Lord, won’t You buy me a Mercedez-Benz!”


Don’t lose sight of the fact that eternal life with the Lord began for you the moment you asked Jesus into your heart. There might be a blink of the eye when you leave your body at the time of your physical death, but it is at that moment when you will be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Don’t forget that we are called to be in the world, but not of the world (John 15:19 and John 17:13-17). Maneuver through this planet as if you are strangers in a strange land. Don’t become a resident!