30 Jun July 23 – Daily Devotional

A SERIES OF DEVOTIONS BASED ON THE BOOK OF HEBREWS

HEAVEN IS MY HOME

Hebrews 13:14 “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

As a Christian, although you live in a specific city, county, state, and country, because you are only a temporary resident no matter where you live.   Look again at Hebrews 11:13-16 where the holy writer says of the Patriarchs of the O.T., “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. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.”

Note below in today’s hymn the hymn writer says of your life, you too are just a visitor here on earth for a brief period of time.  As a Christian you are yearning to go live in your homeland, a better country than the one in which you currently live, heaven.  You are a “strangers (alien) here, heaven is your home.”  Today’s devotional verse says “it is a city to come.”

Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, exhorts, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)

In so many ways it is crystal clear that your earthly life is temporary.  The average length of life might be in the high 70’s to low 80’s, but you know you will not live forever.  A house may stand for several hundred years, but eventually it will rot and decay and be torn down.  Your financial planner tells you your retirement funds will take you to 90, but that too is unpredictable, isn’t it?

Only God’s promise of eternal life because of His undeserved love and gift of faith in Jesus is sure.  That is the “treasures in heaven” to which Jesus directs your attention in Matthew 6.  You are a stranger here.  By God’s grace Jesus has prepared an eternal residence for you in the mansions of heaven. (see John 14)

Prayer:  O Lord, grant me faith that says, “take they my life, goods, fame, child or wife, though these all be gone, (my) victory has been won, The Kingdom (mine) remaineth.” In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

I’m but a strange here, Heav’n is my home;

Earth is a desert drear, Heav’n is my home.

Danger and sorrow stand round me on ev’ry hand;

Heav’n is my fatherland, Heav’n is my home.

What though the tempest rage, Heav’n is my home;

Short is my pilgrimage, Heav’n is my home;

And time’s wild wintry blast Soon shall be overpast;

I shall reach home at last, Heav’n is my home.

Therefore I murmur not, Heav’n is my home;

Whate’er my earthly lot, Heav’n is my home;

And I shall surely stand There at my Lord’s right hand;

Heav’n is my fatherland, Heav’n is my home.

(LSB 748)