Citizen of Heaven

 

In my continued study of Hosea, I was in chapter 5 and 6 this morning and this Scripture from chapter 5 popped out at me.  It was also one of the highlighted verses in the morning devotional I am doing alongside the study of this minor prophet...a favorite of mine.  I've read through this book before, but this year I decided to study at least 4 minor prophets in a deeper way as one of my yearly spiritual goals.  So far I've not gotten very far as Hosea is the first one I chose and I'm only on chapter 6.  But I'm taking my time, taking notes, and doing further reading in various sources and commentaries.

Today's verse popped out at me because we are sometimes like those foolish people in Hosea's time, aren't we?  We only seem to turn to God when things are going badly....when we are in trials or afflictions.  Yet God wants us  to seek Him in the good times as well!

The Israelites were in sin.  Their leaders were corrupt (sound familiar??!) and they weren't acting in godly ways. Their hearts were not set on godly principles but on earthly ways.  They were basically prostituting themselves.

And in Philippians we read that when we set our eyes on earthly things...when these things become idols or we place them before God, then we are walking as enemies of what Jesus did on the Cross.  Yes we have to live in this world....yet we are not to be OF this world. We are to be different.  Godly, holy, remembering that our citizenship is in heaven!!  How free-ing is that??!  I happen to like the new administration of the USA but I am certainly not in agreement all of the time with them nor do I want them to replace God in my life.  They are simply politicians trying to (hopefully) do better than the past leadership.

Yet when I focus my eyes on the Lord and remember my citizenship is in heaven because I am a  child of God and trust Jesus as my Savior, it helps me keep things in perspective and I can't help but believe that my life is in God's Hands....not the hands of any town, state, or national leader.

Let's look for God in the good times......let's not just wait for the difficult times.....

and let's remember to live the Truth that our citizenship as Christ-followers is in Heaven!!  We live for an Audience of One. 

 Let's enjoy the things God has given us, but let's remember they are dust at the end.  Let's focus and invest our time and resources into what God has for us.  The eternal things.

And let's live like our citizenship truly is in Heaven.