May 19 - ARE YOU HOMESICK?

“Truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned” (Heb 11:15)

When Abraham left his country, he left it even in his mind. However, when Lot’s wife left Sodom, she did not leave it in her heart. Hence she looked back and became a pillar of salt.

Note that the word ‘country’ is in italics in the Bible. So we must read the text as - “Truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out…” This means that we must leave not only our country but also anything that our Lord asks us to leave. We may leave it literally but it may be in our heart. Some people go back to their drinking and smoking or other vices after some time. They may have been cherishing them in their heart; so when they faced a temptation they succumbed to it. So, whatever the Lord may ask us to leave, we must leave from our heart and mind, just as the heroes of faith did.

“Now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly” (vs16). Since they desired a better country they did not have a desire to go back to their own country. The Living Bible renders – “they were living for heaven.” If we live for heaven, our heart will be heaven and all the way to heaven will be heaven for us.

If heaven is a ‘better country’ to you, you should be ‘homesick’ while on earth. Child of God, are you ‘homesick’ for your heavenly home? The Lord has prepared for us “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away” (I Pet 1:4). So set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
 

– Taken from Morning Manna – Thoughts for Daily Devotion