Where are you a Citizen? Where is Your Heart?
Where are you a citizen is a question that most people answer by saying USA or wherever they have political connections. That is not wrong. However, as Christians we have a much more important citizenship.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Just before this, the passage says “their minds are set of earthly things.”
Are our minds set on earthly things and our earthly citizenship?
I live in China and definitely feel closer to Christians here than many non Christians in the US.
We should feel the warning signs if our citizenship in our country, our political affiliation or hobby club membership mean more to us than our citizenship in heaven.
I do not want to say these are should’s and no’s. What I mean is that if we see this problem in our heart, then we need to look to God and seek his heart. We need to take action to guard our faith.
God is something infinitely greater than any membership card I can hold. However, I cannot always feel it rightly. Earthly things still ensnare us if we let them capture their heart.
Where Are You a Citizen? What Counts More?
I have to continue to seek God and read his Word as well as pray and fellowship. Only in Christ can we overcome these other pulls from within rather than only struggling to remember this principle. We need to fellowship with friends of committed faith and share openly our doubts and struggles. Encourage one another.
We need to foremost want to share our faith in Christ and not our club. Seek spiritual help if cannot right this problem. It is a danger to our souls.
On this topic, I am in America these days, and while waiting on an IRS meeting, I overheard a Catholic and a Protestant person lamenting the religious issues they see going wrong like Catholic cover ups and political extremism. I sensed the protestant was closer to seeing faith as the answer, and so alone validated his concerns and told him faith moved my heart. He became defensive and asked if I wanted to convert him. I respectfully stayed in my place of saying what God did for me, and we moved on to other topics. Can we pray for more such chances to respectfully raise the flag(the cross). Many of you could do better than me in this quick seed planting,
God help us to hold the Cross high and see our hearts when we feel other groups tugging at our heart. I like studying history, but faith must take us farther by far. Our loyalty is in Christ foremost.
