Hello, my name is Graced.

Sometimes, I find myself thinking of someone more in terms of their past rather than in terms of their present (and future) in Christ.

I characterize people (myself included) more in terms of their regrettable past and forget to diligently seek for evidences of grace in their lives.  To think on what’s true would be to think on who they are now and who they will be as God continues His perfect work in them, not on who they once were.

His people are constant works in progress, sinners who show evidences of God’s grace in their lives.

In Christ, our names aren’t to be mired in association with sins that have been nailed to the cross and paid for.  In Christ, our names are Graced.  And we are to think rightly of one another in this way and in truth that cannot be divorced from love.

And what of the one whose sin continues to hurt and destroy?  Can we still see them with eyes of faith — faith not in them but in the One who can change hearts?

No lasting city.

For some years now, this verse has been such a balm (in a different way than Acts 20:24 has been) to some heartache or another: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)

& Hebrews 11 has been a passage that I’ve returned to again & again to pore over, pray over, cry over, & rejoice over. What a cloud of witnesses (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses . . .). What encouragement & strength gleaned from the lessons of their lives. What a testimony to the faithfulness of God, the very same God who calls me to walk by faith & in faith today.

I take heart from the example of Abraham, who obeyed & “went out, not knowing where he was going . . . for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer & builder is God” (vv. 8-10); from the example of Sarah who “considered Him faithful who had promised,” even in things that were humanly impossible (vv. 11-12); from the example of Moses, who “refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin . . . consider[ing] the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt . . .” (vv. 23-26); & from the example of others, who “were made strong out of weakness . . . were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life . . . suffered mocking & flogging . . .” (vv. 32-28).

All of these in Hebrews 11 did one thing in common. One thing they did commended them: they looked on God with eyes of faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.” (Hebrews 11:1-2)

They took God at His word, even when things visible did not necessarily affirm His word or His promises. They “considered Him faithful who had promised” (v. 11), “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them & greeted them from afar” (v. 13), & “endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (v. 27).

Their sights were set on God. Nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter if circumstances did not make His Word likely. It didn’t matter if human reason argued against the fulfillment of His promises. It didn’t matter what happened to them here. Here was not where their lasting city was anyway. Here was not where their treasure was stored anyway.

After their years here, they reached their lasting city. They reached the place of their rest. They reached where their heart was, where their treasured was laid up.

It is on this basis — this rich history of what God has done in the lives of His weak, embattled people — that we are exhorted to “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder & prefecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

These wandered the earth as pilgrims & as foreigners, citizens of a more lasting city. In the moments when I feel like a wanderer, I’m reminded that others have journeyed much farther & have faced greater trials & heartaches. This isn’t to diminish my aches but to put even the smallest aches into perspective & to magnify the God of faithfulness, the God of grace sufficient, who sovereignly led His people in all kinds of different circumstances throughout the ages.

Let us, too, acknowledge that we are “strangers & exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)

Excerpt from a hymn written by Fanny Crosby, a blind believer:

All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with Thee . . .
Lead me through the vale of shadows, bear me over life’s fitful sea;
Then the gate of life eternal may I enter, Lord, with Thee.
Close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee,
Then the gate of life eternal may I enter, Lord, with Thee.

Let’s sing with her until our faith gives way to sight, until our wanderings lead us Home: Close to Thee, close to Thee.

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Last Thursday, I left a little early for church, & I began driving up the hills near my church (the same hills my old room, my room from birth to age 13, overlooked). I found a place high enough & parked my car.

I was alone, & below was the valley. Streams of silver on the highways. The puddle that was actually a large lake. Small dots that were homes. Even smaller dots — too small to distinguish — people.

It was good being up there. Something about seeing my “world” as a mere dot was humbling.

It was good to see myself as a dot again — such a busy, self-consumed dot. Such a small dot, but such a great God. Such a self-important dot forgetting the glory of God.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand & marked the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure & weighed the mountains in scales & the hills in a balance?

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, & are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the ruler of the earth as emptiness.”

(Isaiah 40:12, 15, 17, 18, 21-23)

He is God Most High.

I [Nebuchadnezzar] blessed the Most High, & praised & honored him who lives forever,

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
& he does according to his will among the host of heaven
& among the inhabitants of the earth;
& none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

(Daniel 4:34-35, 37)

I’m but a dot. He alone is Most High.

How small am I & how small are my cares in comparison to such a great & holy & glorious God.
Yet, how deeply, how truly He cares for me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me . . .

I’ll look no other place.

That’s what the song says:

My hope is found in You
In Your saving love & grace
I’ll seek the one, true God
& I’ll look no other place
I’ll look no other place

I admit, I often look to other things: fleeting joys, people, overwhelming circumstances, my heart’s wretchedness, worldly devices, the things I want but don’t have, & [sadly, most often] self. In all of this, the shameful proof to my foolishness is this: I keep looking to things that do not save, satisfy, or sanctify.

My gaze is most often inward. My journals are full evidence of this. I walk in circles around my heart – planning, musing, pondering, analyzing, prodding, weighing, & looking so intently at its contents. I’m often so fixed (& hence, so wretched) about what I find within . . . as if I expected to find anything better in a completely depraved heart in desperate need of Christ.

The fact is, I will fix my eyes where my affections lie. I will fix my eyes where I place my heart & my trust. It should be Christ. Only Christ.

There is only one one Savior for every sin, one Balm for every wound, one Source for every need, one Hope for every circumstance, one Treasure worthy of lifelong pursuit: Christ alone. King David knew that . . .

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD & to inquire in His temple. For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock.” (Psalm 27:4-5)

“O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry & weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power & glory. Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat & rich food, & my mouth will praise You with joyful lips, when I remember You upon my bed, & meditate on You in the watches of the night; for You have been my help, & in the shadow of Your sings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:1-8)

King David’s ‘best thought by day or by night’ was the Lord. Regardless of circumstances (even when his own life was in peril) & regardless of his own frame of mind (even when he was mentally tormented & in anguish), he directed his thoughts & his vision (the sights of his eyes, the hope of his heart) to the Lord.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
. . . Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
(Dal­lan For­gaill, 8th Cen­tu­ry)

Everything else is but naught – nothing. There’s no need to look any other place, because in one Place, we find our All. In Christ, I find salvation & my heart’s delight. He is my vision, the object of my soul’s constant gaze. I look to Him in love, in humble adoration, in expectant hope.

In The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer writes:

“Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God . . .`They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed’ (Ps.34:5). `Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us’ (Ps.123:1-2) . . .

In full accord with the few texts we have quoted is the whole tenor of the inspired Word. It is summed up for us in the Hebrew epistle when we are instructed to run life’s race `looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.’ (Hebr 12:2) From all this we learn that faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God.

Believing, then, is directing the heart’s attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to `behold the Lamb of God,’ and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives. At first this may be difficult, but it becomes easier as we look steadily at His wondrous Person, quietly and without strain. Distractions may hinder, but once the heart is committed to Him, after each brief excursion away from Him the attention will return again and rest upon Him like a wandering bird coming back to its window . . .

Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves–blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.

Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Unbelief has put self where God should be, and is perilously close to the sin of Lucifer who said, `I will set my throne above the throne of God.’ Faith looks out instead of in and the whole life falls into line.

All this may seem too simple. But we have no apology to make. To those who would seek to climb into heaven after help or descend into hell God says, `The word is nigh thee, even in the word of faith.’ The word induces us to lift up our eyes unto the Lord and the blessed work of faith begins.

When we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us, for it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout all the earth. The sweet language of experience is `Thou God seest me.’ When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth.“

My life will be over in the blink of an eye. I can easily waste this breath of a life, or I can fix my heart on Him & keep my soul’s gaze there continually until my faith becomes sight.

I pray, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things” (Psalm 119:37) & let me instead “consider Him . . . that [I] may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3) until I reach my lasting city, where my true citizenship is.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
& the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory & grace

Turn your thoughts upon Jesus
Think deep of His wonderful love
& the thoughts of sin & of self & strife
Will be lost in that rapture above

I’ll look no other place.

Onward, Upward.

THE HOPE LAID UP FOR YOU IN HEAVEN.

Colossians 1:5

Our hope in Christ for the future is the mainspring and the mainstay of our joy down here today. Our hearts will be stirred by thinking often of heaven, for all that we can desire is promised there. Here we are tired and weary, but over there is the land of rest where the sweat of toil will no longer soak our shirts, and fatigue will be banished forever.

To those who are weary and worn, the word rest is full of heaven. We are always in the field of battle; we are so tempted and so molested by foes that we have little or no peace; but in heaven we will enjoy the victory, when the banner shall be unfurled in triumph, and the sword will be sheathed, and we will hear our Captain say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”¹

We have suffered bereavement after bereavement, but we are going to the land of the immortal where graves do not exist. Here sin is a constant grief to us, but there we will be perfectly holy, for there will be nothing in heaven to defile it. There are no needs in the furrows of celestial fields.

It is a source of deep joy to realize that the wilderness journey of our earthly pilgrimage will end and we will inherit heaven. But let us make sure that we are not just dreaming about the future and thus forgetting the present. Let all thoughts of the future serve to make us useful in the present.

Through the Spirit of God the hope of heaven is the most powerful force for producing virtue; it is a fountain of joyful endeavor; it is the cornerstone of cheerful holiness. Those who have this hope in them go about their work with vigor, for the joy of the Lord is their strength. They fight hard against temptation, for the hope of the next world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. They can work without immediate reward, for they anticipate a reward in the world to come.

¹ Matthew 25:23

Please note: Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright (c) 2003, Good News Publishers and used by Truth for Life with written permission.

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Today is the birthday of a loved one who has been with her Savior for almost 10 years now. Truly, for those who are in Christ, “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)

Onward, upward.