Verse of the Day 8/6

Through the Bible - Psalms 80-84, Romans 9:1-10:4

 

Good morning,

What do you aspire to?  No matter how old we are, I think I can safely say that we all, aspire, want to progress to something more.  As a child it may have been to be a baseball player (that was me), a celebrity, a business tycoon, or an evangelist or a pastor.

 

aspire - To have a great ambition or ultimate goal; desire strongly: To strive toward an end.

 

The aspiration of a Christian should/will be different than others, we are focused towards a different end.

 

For today's verse we'll go to Hebrews 11 to the middle of the chapter where we find the "Hall of Faith".  Verse 13 describes the vision and state of mind of God's true followers.

Hebrews 11:13 (Amplified Bible) These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God's] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth.

Does that describe you "controlled and sustained" by your faith?

When you are facing or have faced strong and difficult trials in your life, they may lead you to long for that homeland. . 

Hebrews 11:16 (Amplified Bible)  But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly [one]. For that reason God is not ashamed to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob], for He has prepared a city for them.

I was reminded of an old hymn, perhaps you'll recall it too.  I've posted the last two stanza's to "There's Within My Heart a Melody."

 

Though sometimes He leads through waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See His footprints all the way.

 

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,

Sweetest name I know,

Fills my every longing,

Keeps me singing as I go.

 

Soon He's coming back to welcome me,
Far beyond the starry sky;
I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown,
I shall reign with Him on high.

 

Today's Old Testament reading is in Psalm 84.  Verse 5 there shares the sentiment.

Psalm 84:5 (New King James Version)  Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
         Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

How would you complete this sentence.  "The truth is, I am yearning and aspiring to .........

Blessings
Mike

mikevw@bellsouth.net
mikesvotd.blogspot.com

Hebrews 11:13-16 (Amplified Bible)

¹³These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God's] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth.

    ¹⁴Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland (their own country).

    ¹⁵If they had been thinking with [homesick] remembrance of that country from which they were emigrants, they would have found constant opportunity to return to it.

    ¹⁶But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly [one]. For that reason God is not ashamed to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob], for He has prepared a city for them.