ON FOREIGN SOIL

I Peter 2:11 Dear brother and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. So I warn you to keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very souls.

We must understand this truth. As the old Gospel song put it, "This world is not my home; I’m just a passing through….." Most of us tend to get deeply attached to this world. We don’t see ourselves as misfits in it. We act as if this is where we will be forever. We must change our mindset if we are ever going to live rightly before God.

We are out of place here. Heaven is our real home and we must act like it. We are citizens of heaven more than we are citizens of earth. Our identity is in heaven, not on earth. We are not like everybody else. We are righteous and holy before God. We do not do as the world does. We don’t think like the world thinks. We don’t live for what the world lives. We don’t fit into the world’s culture. We are uncomfortable living in the world.

We must understand that we have to take charge of our souls. We must keep away from those things which stimulate evil desires within us. We must keep our souls pure before God so that we are fit for heaven. We must not let the world entice us away from God. We must not let life on earth keep us away from diligently pursuing God. We must make the purity and growth of our souls the number one priority of our lives.

We must understand that the ruler of this world now is Satan. This is his turf. He has full reign over it and is constantly on the prowl looking for victims. He is relentless and will not give up on his quest to lure us away from God. He is focused on us and will do everything he can to hinder our growth in Christ or destroy our souls. We are in a spiritual warfare as long as we are here on his turf. In order to defeat him we must aggressively seek the Lord at all times. In Christ alone are we going to make it to our heavenly home.