Pilgrim's progress


Hi all

I rather enjoyed my lunchtime quiet time last Thursday. It was good to take a step back from the busyness of the day to reflect on His word, and it actually energized me for the rest of the day too. I do invite all of you to set aside your own time during the day to quickly recharge too!

One of my favourite Bible passages was discussed last Sunday - it's Psalm 84, which talks about the heart of a pilgrim. It's why I like my blog id, which is pilgrimonearth. My wife says it's actually from a book by John Bunyan called the Pilgrim's Progress, but I always thought it was inspired by Psalm 84!

Psalm 84 describes:

a. how much we should yearn for God's presence ( v2 My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord)
b. how the heart which is set on pilgrimage (i.e. set on meeting God) goes from strength to strength, turning sorrow to joy (v6-7 As they pass through the Valley of Baca (tears) they make it a place of springs... they go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion)
c. how God mightily loves and protects those who so desire him (v11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield... no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless)

What an amazing picture Psalm 84 paints. I think it is crucial for us to remember that we are indeed only pilgrims passing through. Hebrews 11:13 says "All these people [Moses, Noah, Enoch etc] were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them at a distance. AND THEY ADMITTED THAT THEY WERE ALIENS AND STRANGERS ON EARTH."

We are on a journey, and we will go through valleys of tears on the way. But God continues to sustain us, as our sun and shield, as we yearn towards our destination at His side. And if we recognize that we are but aliens along the way, that really helps to put things in perspective.

Joshua 14:10-11 records what Joshua says "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today. eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then."

Isn' t that fantastic? If we, like Joshua can be sustained by God along the pilgrim's way, then we put ourselves in a position to finish as strongly as many of us began. Are we as vigorous for Jesus as we were when, say, we were in our twenties? Is it possible? Joshua certainly thought it was.

Let's strive to cultivate the pilgrim's mindset, and let God continue to empower us so that forty years from today, we can say, like Joshua, that we are just as vigorous to go out to battle for Him as we are today.

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