We Are NOT Home Yet
Dianne E. Balch, Guest Writer
Today’s Treasure
It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken’. Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:14-18
We have spent several days getting in tune with three important houses God is willing to occupy as we pass through this world.
1st, “my heart Christ’s home”. (Thank You, Christ, for living IN the heart of believers.)
2nd, building my house upon the Rock, not sand. (Thank You, Lord, for providing a solid, protective foundation for our homes.)
3rd, enjoying God’s House (Thank You, Lord, for Your church which is Your people, corporately worshipping and serving You.)
Today we look at the 4th house: Heaven, our final destination. Who said it first I’ll never know – but ‘what she said’ is a choir of women in my life who are walking with me in this troubled world and repeatedly quip, “we’re not home yet!”
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms, if it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go back and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
John 14:1-3
Shortly after one of our close friends lost her husband, she brought me a birthday gift. It was Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven in 50 Days. She said we shouldn’t wait to read it. She encouraged us to read it as a devotion to deepen our eternal perspective. We took her advice and my husband almost daily read that book out loud to me. I had mentioned this book to the hostess of a Bible study I helped teach. She decided that we must teach it in the fall. Little did she know that we would begin that study right after my husband was diagnosed with inoperable and untreatable lung cancer. Going through this book on heaven took on new meaning for all of us.
… surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23:6
… our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20
At some point we will all be called to walk through the valley of the shadow of death with a loved one. There will come a time in that journey when we must step back and watch them go ahead. Death is still the king of terrors, but the Lord promises that He is with us. We will get through this.
The promise that gives peace and comfort to believers is, ‘absent from the body, face to face with the Lord’. We will lose family members whose destiny we are not sure of. That is a double grief, and also the reason we keep sharing the Gospel in word, deed, and love.
In the first passage above, Paul had reached a point in his life where he could truly say that “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. You will know when you are there. Continuing his thoughts to the Corinthian church Paul said:
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.
2 Corinthians 5:1, 5-11
When my husband arrived in the emergency room to die four days later, he asked me to get out my Bible and read to him this passage in 2 Corinthians. I am sure he had planned ahead what we both needed to hear when the time came. That godly, precious man was getting us both ready. We knew the Lord was with us. And when he drew his last breath, six witnesses knew we were on holy ground and that he was ‘absent from the body and face to face with the Lord’. Then came grief. I am “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” and will miss him until I am called home.
PRAYER
Dear Father, thank You for Your promise of heaven. Help us take seriously that there is also hell and we are to be Your witnesses to the lost and perishing. Fill our hearts, homes and churches with Christ-centered, Holy Spirit presence. Show us how to “make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). None of us are guaranteed tomorrow. Help us live in light of all of eternity so that Heaven will look better every day. As we age and grow in spiritual maturity, we become more and more homesick. Help us not to become weary, but to live for Your glory until it’s our turn to die. We can only imagine what it will be like to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever” and know it’s HOME. We love You. Amen.
Click to subscribe to Daily Treasure and each day you will receive this devotional in your email inbox every day. It will include other information about free resources designed to offer help and hope as we journey life together.
Sharon W. Betters is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, pastor’s wife, and cofounder of MARKINC Ministries, where she is the Director of Resource Development. Sharon is the author of several books, including Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace. She is the co-host of the Help & Hope podcast and writes Daily Treasure, an online devotional.
Subscribe to Daily Treasure and have devotionals like this one delivered to your inbox.
Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.