Heavenly Citizenship

Read Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16

“They desire a better country, that is a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16)

Some of my favorite stories are about double agents and undercover cops, of simultaneous worlds like Narnia or Stranger Things. 

I loved serving in Mali. I was a white, English-speaking, Jesus-follower in a Black, French/Malinké-speaking, Muslim world. My perception of reality was limited and flawed; the world was so much bigger than I could imagine.

Abraham was loosely tethered to his world. He left his known home to go to an unknown place led by an unseen God. He was anchored to an intangible promise of a real country, where he would no longer be a pilgrim wanderer, always seen by others as a stranger, always feeling like an alien. A place planned and built by God—home.

There is an African proverb that captures the reality of missionary life in West Africa: no matter how long a log lies in the river, it will never become a crocodile. No matter how long we lived in Mali or how deeply we entered the culture and way of life, we would never be insiders. When things got tough, we could pull out our passports and leave. Like undercover agents or spies, we would never be fully embedded. 

Abraham is central in the Hebrews 11 Faith Hall of Fame because he believed in what he couldn’t see. He believed that God had a better country prepared for him and he was prepared to live in pursuit of that promise no matter the cost. 

Whatever passport we carry, this world is not our home. “Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). We belong to the kingdom of God. When we live in the reality of that promise, trusting it as more real than what we see around us, we please God.

For Reflection: Thank God today for any feelings of not fitting or belonging. Specifically thank Him that you are a citizen of His kingdom. Live in it today and believe in it for tomorrow. 

by Lisa Sinclair