God Provides His People A Place Of Their Own

God Provides His People A Place Of Their Own

“So the field of Ephron in Machpelah . . . was made over to Abraham as a possession” (Genesis 23:17-18).

We all have that desire to find a place where we belong. In the words of the Cheers theme song, “Where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came.” But as followers of Jesus we always feel a bit out of place, wherever we go. There is good reason for this feeling. 

The Apostle Peter reminds us that we are “sojourners and exiles” in this world (1 Peter 2:11). The Apostle Paul comforts us with the reality that our “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20).

This reality of our life as sojourners was brought home to Abraham when his wife Sarah passed away. Although they had spent over sixty years in Canaan at that time, he still did not own one square inch of land on which to bury Sarah. 

When he bought a cave in a field to serve as his wife’s tomb Abraham finally possessed a piece of the promised land. A down-payment on the place that would eventually belong to his descendants. A place of their own! 

While we sojourn in this world, looking for a place to belong, Jesus assures us that he has a place waiting for us, a place of our very own. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). 

The place that Jesus promises us is not some pie-in-the-sky make-believe place. It is right here on what will be a renewed earth. “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). 

The promise of Jesus that we have a place on the new earth is effectively our deed to our new home. We currently possess that promise, that deed, as a down-payment on our “forever home.”  Even more, we possess Christ, for he has united himself with us, such that Jesus himself is our down-payment, our guarantee, of a place on the renewed earth forever with him. “God . . . made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4–6).

Believer, when you find yourself longing for a place to belong, understand that this longing is natural. And be assured, that in Christ, you already possess the place which God provides. A place of your own, where you, and we, belong forever. Just like Abraham, let us with deep satisfaction look forward to that place. “He was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Finally, a place where we belong.