I am a foreigner.

I have been really pressed to study 1 Peter and commit it to memory.  I don't know if I'm going to be facing trials and that's why or if I need to be ready to help someone going through a trial.  Like I said, I have no clue, but I know that God has very clearly shown me in 3 completely different ways that He is desiring for me to study 1 Peter, despite the fact that I had already started Romans! 

So, here I am studying 1 Peter precept upon precept and letting Scripture interpret Scripture, as Kay Arthur says.  I have loved doing her studies and decided that I would do her study on 1 Peter to aid in my discovery of what the Word is saying.

Today as I was studying, God really spoke to me in such a wonderful way.  I love it when He reveals new things to me and helps me to see things in a new way.  I was doing a word study on "alien" and "stranger" and then started listing the ways I would feel if I was living as a foreigner in a land.  If I had to guess, I would be excited and would do all I could to prepare myself for this "new" land.  I would research it, find places to visit, and immerse myself in it.  I would learn all I could about it and would have goals made out of what I wanted to see/do while I was there.  It would be a time that would be somewhat freeing, I would think.  Only because I would know that I would only be there for a set amount of time.  After that, I would be returning back home to where I was familiar with things.  Not only that, but I would have a purpose for being there, whether it was visiting, working, etc.  So whatever that purpose was, I would be fulfilling that purpose to the best of my ability.  I wouldn't go to that "new" land and waste my days by sitting on the chair and watching television.  I would be out, meeting people and partaking in what I knew would help me fulfill my goal.

Now, when I think of how God has said we are foreigners (like in 1 Peter 1:1, for example....but that's just one of many instances), I realized that I had never taken into consideration the things that I wrote above.  I as a believer am only here for a moment before I reside in my permanent home in heaven with Jesus Christ.  But do I live in this "new" land with a purpose?  Am I excited about it or burdened?  Do I attempt to accomplish the goals laid out before me to the best of my ability or do I shy away from them?  Do I waste my days doing things that don't matter or do I fill my days with the things that God wants me to accomplish while I'm here?  How well do I know this "new" world?  How well do I know my inheritance that God has placed in heaven for me?  Do I truly believe there's an inheritance set apart for me that is "pure and undefiled and beyond the reach of change and decay?"  Do I truly believe that?  Does my life reflect where my true home is?  When people look at me, do they see that I'm not comfortable in this world?  Do they see me accomplishing goals that Christ has for me to do?

I challenge you to live as if you are a foreigner.  Make a list of how you think you would feel if you were living as a foreigner.  Then apply that to your Christian walk.