Seems rude. Shouldn't they have come early if they were really that interested? How dare they push everyone else out of the way!
The woman who had been bleeding for twelve years may have seemed rude as she pressed in close to Jesus. She wasn't rude. She was desperate. Desperate to be healed. Desperate to touch the one who could change her life. If she could just get close enough to touch his clothes....
She pressed in.
Jesus turned and saw the woman and said, "Be encouraged, dear woman. You are made well because you believed." And the woman was healed from that moment on. -- Matt. 9:22.
Then sometimes you press on.
Naomi went from being a wife, mother of two sons and mother-in-law, to being a widow with two widowed daughters-in law. Life was filled with pain and heartache. The future seemed empty and hopeless. But Naomi didn't give up.
Naomi pressed on.
Naomi returned to her home in Judah with her daughter-in-law Ruth. There she introduced Ruth to Boaz, Ruth's kinsman redeemer. Through events only God could arrange, Ruth married Boaz. Then God gave her not only a husband, but a son. God redeemed Ruth and restored Naomi's dreams.
The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. -- Ruth 4:13-17.
God gave her a grandson. A little baby boy to love and hold. She was undoubtably thrilled and excited. But little did she know how much more God was doing than she could see. She thought she was holding a grandson. She didn't know she was holding a great-grandparent of the Messiah, the Promised One.
Naomi could have focused on her losses. But she pressed on to be a part in the events that set the stage for the birth of the kinsman redeemer who would redeem all mankind.
Press Forward.
One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 4:13-14.
We are not made to live here. This earth is not our home. If sometimes we feel a little out of sorts being here, it is because we were never supposed to be completely comfortable here. This is our preparation area for heaven.
Too often we live like this life is all there is. We don't talk about hell much anymore. We don't talk about heaven, either. We act as if the Christian life works because it is good for us now; that we accept Christ for what He can do for us in this life.
But we are called to press forward to heaven.
When I was a little girl, I loved the old songs about heaven. I remember regularly singing:
When We All Get to Heaven
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace;
In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place.
Refrain:
When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!
Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.
We can not allow ourselves to become so acclimated to this earth that we don't yearn for heaven. We were created for heaven! We were created to walk on streets of gold, to live in mansions God has prepared for us, to spend eternity praising the One who died for us. There was an old saying that we don't want to be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. I am afraid that we have compensated to the point that we aren't heavenly minded at all!
Be changed by His Spirit. Don't give up despite the circumstances. Yearn for heaven.
Press in. Press on. Press Forward.
This was a lovely post -- thank you.
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