Home Is Up Ahead!
God has been so faithful to speak through His Word as we have dug deep into it, desperate for His leading. Scripture after Scripture has shaped the vision God has given us for The Brave Way Home and we are grateful to share them with you, believing that they will bolster your faith in Jesus and encourage you on your journey.
Hebrews 11:13-16 - “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
These verses in Hebrews have held us through dark disappointment in this world and have focused our hearts on the promises ahead. “All these people” were faithful, devoted followers of God, intimately acquainted with God and yielded to His movement in their lives...and they died without receiving the promises, but still believed them...welcoming them from a distance, looking forward to what lies beyond this broken world, longing for a country of their own, a better place, a heavenly homeland. This is faith.
I love these verses because there is no attempt to disguise the inadequacy of this present reality to satisfy our hopes. There is no command that says, “lower your expectations, get used to the way things are, just get back to normal, keep your head down and if you have to grieve, do it quietly...and with a smile, please.” No. These words remind me that this life is temporary...a passageway that I travel as a foreigner. This is not home. And I also love these verses because they scream out my hope...Home is up ahead! There are deep valleys, impossible mountains, deadly predators and crushing sorrow, but there are promises that pull us on...call us deeper...draw us closer. The worst things are not the last things. Home is up ahead!
My appetite for the things this world has to offer has died, and my hunger for the city God has prepared for me has grown wild. I must have what Jesus has offered me. I am looking for a better place, determined to follow my Savior forward and welcoming precious promises from a distance. Jesus is the only hope of weary travelers looking for a homeland, and what a strong hope He is. He is the One who is able to carry us on through whatever terrain we are traveling in, able to present us, finally, mature and complete, to our God, who has prepared a city for us.
I often find myself in Hebrews 11, this chapter often called the “Hall of Faith,” that presents the vital relationship between faith and hope. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. Hope is a certain expectation. Our faith can stay strong through every circumstance because our hope is just so irresistible. (Revelation 21:1-7 gives just a glimpse of what to expect when we finally reach Home!) So we follow our Savior forward, confident as we hold to the hope that lies before us. Home is up ahead!
The Brave Way Home is a mindset that invites you to allow this kind of heavenly thinking to invade your earthly living. We’re not building a program - we are fostering a perspective, a heart posture in believers. Who or what are you hanging your hope on? Is it a firm enough anchor to pull you forward, regardless of your current circumstances and the weight on your heart? Does your life exhibit faith that holds to hope, regardless of the landscape you are walking in? Does your confident expectation of a heavenly homeland inform your decisions and shape your attitudes? Take the time to wrestle with these questions in prayer...thank God for the hope He gives and affirm your faith in Him.
Jesus Christ is the only One who gives us true hope (1 Tim. 1:1) a living hope (1 Pt. 1:3). Let your faith in Him propel you on and your hope in Him anchor your soul. Keep right on going because your eyes are on the One who is invisible (Heb 11:7), place your hope in a better life after the resurrection (Heb 11:35) and confidently look forward to a city with eternal foundations (Heb 11:10), a homeland prepared for you (Heb 11:16).
Home is up ahead, wayfarer. Home is up ahead!
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