That City

7/16/2016

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

In verse 5 of Hebrews 13, the writer said: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have…”; then he went on to say the above. Our hearts long for peace. Our lives long for security. And God has promised those things but they are not for now in this world; at least not in the measure that God promises them in the future.

It is good to be content, but it is also helpful to have a longing. Looking for that city that is to come is a healthy longing; a healthy yearning. Contentment helps us live productively now, and fruitful longing helps us to keep keeping on. Hope is a wonderful thing.

I’ve told my wife that I want to go out to the ocean. I want to experience its magnitude, power, and presence. But I know that is only a brief experience and the ocean, in all its power and majesty, is not the answer to my longing for peace and security, and the absence of all that is wrong. My peace and security are found in Him – the one who promises a city where He is, and all wrong is gone. I want to go the ocean, but only for the purpose of thanking Him for making it, and letting me experience it. My longing though, is still for that city to come.

And so my days are filled with the things I do, my work, my passions, and my pleasures. But those things are not where I’m headed – I’m on my way to a city where He is. I’m on my way to His presence forever.

Isaiah the prophet wrote: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace    those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. (Isaiah 26.1-30) those verses describe those who long for that City to come.

Much is wrong in our world – just ask those in Nice, France – they’ll tell you. But all is not lost, and God promises a place to come where our longing to love and be loved will be fulfilled forever. We must, despite all that is wrong in our world, keep our focus and gaze toward that promised city for which we long where all our cares will be answered, and no more will there be wrong.

In the meantime, we live here in a broken and crumbling world of perceived power and struggle, but our gaze, our longing, is for that place where brokenness will be no more. I have to leave all the answers to God because He knows what is going on and only He knows how to deal with us, within it. He promises us a city. He’ll fulfill our longings there.

Father, the seeds of longing are scattered in this day and age when so much seems to be wrong. You are in control of all and You have promised me a place of peace and security forever. That is what I long for and that is why I look to You, and for You, in the midst of my days. I’m looking for that City where You are. Take me there – Amen.