THE LIFE AND TESTIMONY OF
STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS
Part 4

“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.
And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.”
(Philippians 3:20-21 NLT).

7. PILGRIMS LIVE BY FAITH

The only way to live this pilgrim life is by faith. Writing about Abraham, Hebrews 11: 9 (Phillips) says: “It was faith that kept him journeying like a foreigner through the land of promise.” Our journey through this world is a faith journey. When we resort to trusting in what we can see and plan with our own minds, we move into the realm of the unbeliever who lives for this world. As strangers and foreigners, we live for another world.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Pilgrims don’t live according to the circumstances around them, but by faith in the promises of God. Pilgrims don’t live by the “seen and temporal,” but by the “unseen and eternal.”

In the midst of troubles and deception all around, keep journeying by faith with your eyes upon the Lord.

8. PILGRIMS BELONG TO A HEAVENLY COUNTRY

Philippians 3:20 in the Berean Literal Bible says: “For our citizenship exists in the heavens, from whence also we are awaiting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Hebrews 11: 10 says that Abraham “Looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

Hebrews 11: 16 says: “But now they desire a better country, that is, a HEAVENLY: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

9. PRILGRIMS TRAVEL LIGHT

Pilgrims don’t get bowed down with too much stuff. They are not accumulating for this world, but for the world to come. They do not waste their time building treasure on earth, but send it up for their eternal home (Matthew 6:19-21).

Hebrews 12:1: “Wherefore seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses (the strangers and aliens who walked by faith on this earth), LET US LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Luke 9:58: “And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

10. PILGRIMS MAKE THEIR HOME A PRILGRIM HOUSE

Even though God chose a land for His people Israel and gave it to them by divine intent and promise, He wanted them to see it as a pilgrimage land. Genesis 6:4 says : “I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.”

David said to God: “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.” Even though David was a king, he still confessed he was a sojourner in the earth. Because was a sojourner, he understood that the home he lived in was to be a sojourning home. Our home is not a place to put down roots forever. It’s only a half-way house on the way to our heavenly home.

But David wanted to make his home as much like the heavenly home as he possibly could. David loved the presence of God. He loved to worship God and therefore organized 24 hour continual worship in the temporary tabernacle during his kingship. And I am sure he filled his own home with worship too.

This is also God’s plan for us. He wants us to make our pilgrimage homes as much like our heavenly home as possible. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He told them pray in this manner: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9, 10). Let’s just stop there. Can we get hold of these words? Jesus asked us to pray that His will would be fulfilled in earth, just as it is in Heaven. That means that His ways, His will His presence, and all that fills Heaven should fill our homes. The atmosphere of Heaven should be the atmosphere of our pilgrimage home on earth!

Pilgrim homes should be glorious homes--filled with the presence of the Lord, filled with worship, filled with the riches of God’s Word, filled with love and joy and all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and filled with the atmosphere of Heaven.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty,
Hold me with Thy pow’rful hand. Amen.”

~ William Williams

AFFIRMATION:

“This world is not my home
I'm just a-passing through,
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore.”

~ Jim Reeves