"Pilgrims"

"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" (I Peter 2:11).

Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have no home in this present world. We may settle in a house, of course, and spend most of our lives in a particular place. However, our nature and spiritual being is foreign to the realm that is merely a passageway unto the God who is Himself our true abode. "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations" (Psalm 90:1).

We live in bodies that originated in the world and that still long for its grass to grow under our feet, as it were. Our Lord therefore orchestrates and allows frequent discomfort for the purpose of reminding us that we are "strangers and pilgrims." He also commands that we avoid fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. We deceive ourselves when we allow our earthly components to control us because the temporary rewards of carnality bring pleasure in the short run. Indulgence of the flesh, however, leads to delusion and a creeping paralysis of the spiritual dynamic whereby we increasingly understand that there is no solid ground in a world that "passeth away" (I John 2:17).

We do well to keep this truth as the forefront of our thinking, and to seek our Lord's continual guidance in the enjoyment of His tangible blessings, and in maintaining the determination to hold things lightly as we pass through this present lifetime. God alone is stable and unchanging, and He is the home of our hearts.

"The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower."

(Psalm 19:2)