| The believer in Christ needs ever to remember that we are on earth as “strangers and pilgrims” and that “our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” and “here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” We are not only “strangers”—for our Lord said that “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”—we are also “pilgrims,” for we are journeying toward heaven and glory. How very much we need the Lord’s help to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” Like David, we need to cry, “Hear my prayer, O Lord … for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner.” Truly, “I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me.” Remembering our pilgrim character and that “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world,” then “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” |
