“You have been created for more than you will ever experience on earth.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – October 25, 2022
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 1 Peter 2:11
This week I spoke with a long-time friend on the phone who lives a few states away. She poured out her heart: “I want to have closer relationships with people. I’m not good at superficial talk and chit chat over things that don’t really matter. I want to connect with women about how they are really doing, about spiritual things, and about matters of the heart. But it seems like people don’t want to do that anymore. It makes me sad.”
My friend also shared how she would like closer relationships with her children who are in their twenties and are busy with their lives. She misses the time she had with them when they were small.
After she shared her heart’s desires, our conversation turned the corner to contentment. We talked about how life this side of heaven won’t ever be what we fully want. There will always be a longing in our hearts for more.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
This scripture is a reminder that we have been created for more than we will ever experience here on earth. More hope, more love, more joy, and more abundant relationships—but we don’t have those things now. They will come later when He makes all things new or takes us Home.
Philippians 3:20 says our true citizenship is in heaven. That’s where we belong and John 17:16 says that we are not of this world, even as Jesus was not of this world. This means that when we finally accept that we will never experience complete contentment in any area of life while we live on the earth, the more content we will be.
After one of my college friends married, I spoke with her parents in the church fellowship hall after the ceremony and I will never forget what her father said about marriage, “The less you expect, the better it will be.”
At the time, I thought that was a pitiful thing to say. As a young woman who was looking forward to the joys of matrimony, his comment sounded like settling and I didn’t like it.
Now as an older woman, I totally understand what my friend’s dad was saying: the secret to joy and contentment in marriage is recognizing that even the best marriage will not perfect.
The same is true in all of life. When we accept that we will never be completely content while we walk the earth, the more content we will be and the greater joy we will experience. And then (Hallelujah!) we will be able to turn our faces fully upward to the King who comforts us and brings us joy while we wait to go to our true Home.
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth (Hebrews 11:13).”
Prayer
Lord, how I praise you that the longings I feel here on earth are a reminder that I was made for more, and that my deepest longings will one day be completely fulfilled. Amen!
Application
Share what you learned with someone today.
Related Reading
1 John 2:15-16; John 15:18-19; Romans 12:2
Worship Resource
Chris Tomlin: Home
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