Read Daniel 2 and 3.
Life in a fallen world usually feels like exile to us as believers. There is terrorism, illness, political chaos, economic struggles, relational problems, uncertainty about the future, and, perhaps worst of all, advancing value systems and belief systems that attack our faith and our God.
Many times, life can feel like exile in a foreign land and so many times it can feel like we are barely surviving . . . certainly not thriving.
Two and a half millennia ago four teenage boys were deported from their home country to a hostile country against their will. They were put into university to teach them the ways, worldview, and the gods of the new country. Their names were changed to give glory to the gods of that foreign country. They were in a new culture, held against their wills. They were in a new location, learning a new language, and under severe spiritual, philosophical, and emotional duress. And yet, they were thriving (You can read their story in Daniel 2 and 3)!
It is possible to thrive in exile.
We are citizens of another place (Philippians 3:20). We are strangers and aliens in this world (1 Peter 2:11). This is not our home. We are not tourists. Rather, we are resident aliens with a Green Card. We are allowed to work and we are in fact expected to work. This is not a "throw away" or "do overs" existence. This life matters. The way we live in this world matters. The way we live in this world affects the way we experience the next world—our real home.
The natural question then is this: How do we thrive in a hostile world?
The answer to that question is about 19 volumes long!
Let me mention one element of that answer. Luke 18:1 says, "Jesus was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart." The parable He then tells is the story of the widow who wore out an unjust judge by simply not going away—making incessant appeals for justice.
This verse makes it very clear that we have two options.
- Pray.
- Lose heart.
Those are the options.
In my natural self I am much better at losing heart than at praying. But in my spiritual self I have the choice to pray continually and expectantly, and therefore not to lose heart—in fact to thrive.
It is possible to thrive in exile. It is expected of us. One of the elements of how we do that is simply "to pray continually and expectantly."
Father, we come to you in prayerful expectation that it is indeed possible to thrive in exile. Help us to do so. Amen.
-from our Executive Vice President of Field Ministries