March 4, 2022 | Sojourners
“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before You and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding” (1 Chronicles 29:14-15).
In this prayer of David to the assembly, He is outlining the sovereignty of God. In His appeal to God, he notes that we are strangers in the land and sojourners upon it, temporary residents waiting for our ultimate destination.
So, if we, as believers in God, are sojourners on the earth, where is that elusive destination we seek? A hint is given in Philippians 3:20, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we learn that the place we should long to make our home is heaven. This is the goal, the place where our journey ends.
The station we currently find ourselves in is a temporary destination where we are called to be the representatives of God. Each day we are to prepare for that day when our traveling has come to a close and, more than that, it is a place that we work together to find the path that will lead us to that final stop.
That is why the Lord does not wish for us to get lost in worldliness, because this life is only a transient one. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you..” (Colossians 3:1-5).
One day we might look back at our lives here on this plain and see the full picture of how we were outsiders, sojourners in a place that was never meant to be our forever home. If we do, we’ll witness once again all the things that made it foreign. The sin and destruction will retell a story of a place that had separated itself from the one true God and had instead settled on lesser gods of its own making.
Christ came to transition us from sojourners on earth to residents of heaven, from strangers to the family of God. Through His death and resurrection, we died to worldliness and rose again to a new life in anticipation of things to come.
Because He humbled Himself to be like us, we have the promise to one day find ourselves in heaven to be more like Him.
So, as we wait for our final destination, we are asked to take on godliness. 1 Peter 2:11-12 emphasizes this when it says, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against the soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
As we all know having lived in this broken world, that is much more easily said than done. That is why we must remain vigilant and unshakable in our faith. That is why we are to form good habits and avoid evil ones. That is why God asks us to stay in His Word and walk in His ways. Because this is not the end of our journey. We are just strangers and sojourners here trying to stay on the path that will lead us to glory and only God can show us the way.
“When Jesus Christ came to earth, He left the riches of Heaven to become a man. More than anyone who ever lived, Jesus realized that earth was not His real home. He was simply a pilgrim, a sojourner, on the great mission of redemption. He didn’t come to acquire financial fortunes, luxurious mansions, or earthly empires. In fact, it seems he possessed little but with it He accomplished the greatest work. So much of what he used to fulfill His Heavenly Father’s purpose, he accomplished with items that He borrowed.
He borrowed the stable he was born in, He borrowed the manger he was laid in, He borrowed a boat from which he preached to the crowds, He borrowed a boy’s lunch with which He fed the 5,000, He borrowed the donkey on which he rode into Jerusalem, He borrowed the tomb in he was buried, In fact, he even borrowed the father who raised Him.” (SermonCentral.com).
Just like Christ, we are sojourners in a world that was never meant to be our forever home. We wait for a new heaven and a new earth where we might finally find our rest. Please pray with me:
Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us the way home and help us to stay on the right path during our sojourning. Amen.
