Rewriting Your Broken Storyნიმუში

Day 2

Living as Aliens and Strangers

If we’re to rewrite our broken story, we need to embed it in the context of the greatest story—God’s story. That’s what having an eternal perspective is all about.

Part of this means remembering where our true home is.

Too many of us, even as Christians, confuse this world with our final home. We get overly comfortable—settling in like we’ll be here forever.

In the 21st century, most of us live with more comfort and prosperity than kings lived with as recently as two centuries ago. In our affluence, there is danger.

The more prosperous we are in this world, the harder it will be for us to live as if this world is only a passing thing. The more we clutch it, the greater its hold on us. We can find ourselves clinging tenaciously to social status and possessions that take hold of our hearts and lead us to confuse the temporal and eternal perspectives:

Temporal perspective = This world is all there is; there’s no life after death.

Eternal perspective = Life on earth is important, but it’s not all there is; when we trust Christ, we gain eternity—what we were created for.

Often, it takes what author Sheldon Vanauken calls the “severe mercy” of God to bring us to the point of desperation and truly begin to see our lives as God sees them. Only then do we become aware of our true condition and lack of control. Only then will we be willing to receive the good news of Jesus. Until then, it’s not good news.

We don’t seek out good news when we’re feeling fine. So our broken stories become the perfect places for Jesus to enter our lives.

Heed this warning: Even after you come to faith in Christ, you’re not nearly as likely to depend on and trust Him as radically if things are going well for you. This is when you especially need to be cautious and ask Him to help you love Him even more than you love the good things in your life.

There’s nothing wrong with prosperity. God is not opposed to wealth. But He is opposed to you being consumed by your wealth. He doesn’t want it to become the treasure of your heart.

Hold to the things of this world with a loose grip because, eventually, those things will be someone else’s anyway. You’ll leave everything behind. Seek God’s kingdom first, Jesus said; if you don’t, and you seek second and third things first, you’ll lose them all.

Heroes of the Faith—Pilgrims Passing Through

Hebrews 11 offers a great reality check. From Abel to Abraham to Moses and others, the men and women in this “Hall of Faith” chapter of the Bible embraced an eternal perspective. They valued the eternal over the temporal.

Many of the people in Hebrews 11 never saw the fulfillment of the promises God made to them. They trusted Him anyway, often enduring great adversities and persecution, confident that His promises would be fulfilled one day.

The men and women of Hebrews 11 took the attitude of pilgrims, strangers, exiles, or aliens in a foreign land—people not yet home to their native country but just passing through.

Is that the perspective you have of your life? How does this “pilgrim mindset” help put our “broken stories” into perspective?

Scripture Reading:

Hebrews 11:1–40

Matthew 6:19–24

1 Peter 2:11

Philippians 3:20