ALIENS

1 Chronicles 29:15 "We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope."

I have a dear friend who has terminal cancer. He will not accept the diagnosis and is fighting to stay alive. He is on a lonely path, keeping within himself and trying to hold on to this life.

From the beginning of his diagnosis, he has tried to attend church on Sundays when able. He is of a denomination that requires he attend church every Sunday or he’s in sin. My heart is so heavy for this man because he doesn’t understand the difference between “religion” and “relationship”. He is in his final days and he does not KNOW his LORD.

When we believe “in” the Lord…really believe IN HIM (John 3:16)…and accept Him as our personal savior, we understand, first of all, that we are His children and He loves us more than any human being possibly could. Once we believe that and through the study of His word, we learn that we are all aliens on this earth. Our final destination is with Him. (Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. John 14:1-3) When we believe, we understand and rest in the fact that everything that happens in our lives is part of His plan and His plan will not be thwarted in spite of us and all that we try to do in our own strength.

In the midst of trials, we often fail to realize God’s purpose until we look back over the events of our trials and see His hand in all the details. Sometimes, even after looking back, we won’t realize His purpose but we trust, knowing that God loves us and He has our best interest in mind (Romans 8:28); that the trials in our lives…our lives in general…are all part of God’s Master Plan, a plan much bigger than us.

Our Lord’s goal is to bring each and every one of His children to Him. He desires for all of us to know Him personally! When we know Him personally, we commit our lives to Him and allow Him to work through us (Romans 6:11) and our life on this earth takes on a whole new meaning. Our life becomes His vessel, a vessel that touches everyone we come in contact with. So our trials become important because they have a purpose both in refining our faith and in providing opportunity for us to draw others to our Lord (1 Peter 1:6-8). The blessing of being a child of God in trials such as my friend is experiencing is that we realize that we are aliens in this world and when He decides to take us from this world, we don’t die, we go HOME to be with our Lord!