Our lives will follow our thinking
The Lord’s insight. Our carnal circumstances should lead us to eternal thoughts and actions.
Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 4:11 “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.”
430 years the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt. Conventional thinking tells us that God had to give them time to grow in number from just being a family to becoming a nation. You may have wondered what was God doing for them in all that time of oppression?
I know I have wondered why didn’t God do something about the Egyptian oppression even if the Israelites had to be there to grow? Being a slave is bad because you are denied freedom of humanity. But living the life of a slave makes being a slave even worse because you are denied the dignity of humanity.
I guess wondering about what God is doing is about the same as asking Him what He is doing. Here is what came to me because of my wondering. The Lord does not want us here on earth living heavenly lives in a carnal way. Life is going to bring us some good and life is going to bring us some challenges that can be used to find more good. But life is not going to be all good.
Our carnal circumstances should lead us to want and to desire more eternal thoughts and actions. Our eternal thoughts and actions would lead us to respond to and to live out our carnal circumstances in a better way. God was teaching the Israelites to secure some of the goodness of His kingdom by the way they lived before Him in the tough times in Egypt.
I believe in many ways it’s similar or the same for us today. The Lord teaches us to live eternally in our circumstances so that our circumstances will be changed by the way we live. The Lord teaches us to live eternally before others so that others will be influenced by seeing eternal living here on earth.
Philippians 3:20 is telling us that we are citizens of heaven. And being citizens we must live like citizens. When we visit another country, we must respect the laws, customs and ways of that country. But we are not citizens of that country. How we live in our bondage is different from how the people of the world live in bondage.
Do we want to be free of hurt, pain, bondage, mistreatment and things like this? Yes we do and we want this for all people. But while we do not beg to have hardships, Philippians 4:11 reminds us to be content in whatever state is before us. Hardships are a part of life.
Contentment will keep you from allowing your circumstances to make you live like getting out of your circumstances is all you want. Contentment is what helps you to learn to face all your challenges with an eternal thought that leads to a more eternal action.
The Israelites were waiting on God. The Lord is waiting on us. He does not want it to take 430 years for us to learn this. He is waiting on us to start living heavenly eternal lives today right here in our carnal circumstances. So, listen to Him. If you want more good to happen in your life, learn to live with a more eternal perspective. That is the good that life can do nothing about but to watch and to behold and to respect.
Live A Delivered Life.
Live Delivered 