Citizens of Heaven
Travelling is a passion of mine. I love to explore new places, study history, and make new friends. I realized possessing American citizenship and an American passport gives me access to travel to almost anywhere in the world. This is a great privilege.
Travelling is a passion of mine. I love to explore new places, study history, and make new friends. I realized possessing American citizenship and an American passport gives me access to travel to almost anywhere in the world. This is a great privilege. I have many friends in Africa that would love to travel overseas and yet it is very difficult for them to get visas. As I was reflecting on the 4th of July, my heart was full of gratitude to live in a free country where I have had a wealth of opportunities.
I was thinking about what does it mean then to be a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven? What privileges, rights and freedoms do I have? Am I living to the full potential of these rights? This scripture expresses how God intends us to live:
2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (Message) Dear, dear Corinthians (insert name), I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
I encourage you to ask the Lord, how you can live life more fully and openly. There may be areas in your life that you feel you struggle in with grasping the full life of freedom God intends for you as part of His family and Kingdom. Ask the Lord to give you a promise verse that would address this area of struggle. When I was thinking about the great privilege of being part of God’s Kingdom, I thought of my access to unending love and daily new mercies.
Romans 8:39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lamentations 3:22-23 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Jesus’ death on the Cross gave us access to everything we need to live a full, abundant life. Whether you need joy, peace, hope, love, forgiveness, deliverance, anything you have need of you can find in Him. As my American passport gives me access to explore nations, your citizenship in Heaven gives you opportunity to explore every promise in the Word of God to you His precious sons and daughters.
The world seems to be erupting with wars, crisis, and terror. As you reflect on your freedoms remember those who are still walking in darkness and those living in oppressed countries and regions. Pray for those around the world who are living in war zones, live under threats of terror, don’t have access to education, don’t have freedom of expression and the persecuted church. Pray for many to be called out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light that many would be able to live a wide open life.