Passing Through

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:13 (KJV)

One of the things I love that a friend of mine used to say is that when he was in prison, he never called it home. That always made me think of a passage in the old testament. 
The children of Israel had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar to a foreign land. Jerusalem was burned with fire and God's blessing was on those who submitted and went into captivity. 

It was a season of affliction and difficulty that was not meant by God to be permanent but the children of Israel began to plant roots and make it their home. They were living among a foreign culture with foreign gods and they lost sight of Jerusalem, lost sight of the place they were meant to be. 

In the same way many of us have made this world, or a place that God has us, our home and have planted roots. 

In the Book of Nehemiah and Ezra, when God began to rebuild Jerusalem, one of the first things they did was to establish the Feast of Booths. It was to remind the people that we are just passing through. 

God may be shaking our lives in order to get us from here to where He wants to take us.


For a Christian, you will never be able to find your home in this world. That's because this broken, fallen world can't satisfy you. Many people feel like they would be content if they could just make a little more money. There is never enough money to bring contentment or lasting peace. You go out and make money only to put it in a pocket with holes. Something tells you this car is not good enough, you need a better car, you need a bigger house or the newest gadget. You keep buying the same things over and over but they never bring fulfillment.

God will not allow any of those things to satisfy you here because He is trying to take you somewhere. 

If you look at the life of Abraham, God called Him to leave everything and travel to a land that was unfamiliar to him. God told him to leave everything.  

He did except he brought Lot with him and I believe that represents an attachment to what is familiar. 

How many of us when we are moving into the unfamiliar want to take someone or something with us that is familiar to us? Something that brings us security because of our fears. God will allow it for a season but there comes a place where flesh does not mesh with Spirit. In His mercy God will say to us, "Turn it loose.  I've let you carry Lot this far but now there's constant bickering and fighting in your heart."

What is it that you are trying to take with you on your journey that God is trying to cut out of your life? Today, don't harden your heart, simply get still before Him and listen for His still soft voice. 

God wants to take you a way you've never been before.

Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.

 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

Haggai 1:2-5 (KJV)

For further study, consider this video: