Living in Tents

One of the great truths in Abraham's life is that he was content to live in his tents. The stakes were never driven down too deeply into the world that was not his home. He was never at his destination. Ready to stay where he was as long as God desired it, he was also ready to pull up stakes and leave at a moment's notice. And wherever he placed his tents, he built an altar of worship. It didn't matter where he was because God was always there and could be readily worshipped. The Lord was at hand. And anytime he wanted to, he could walk out under the stars and be amazed and humbled by the promises of God. Promises too immense to be counted or measured in the finite mind of a man. But they could be believed and counted on. It didn't really matter to Abraham where he was, only who he was--God's faithful follower. He would be at home and settle in when he reached the heavenly city of promise. Until then, tents were fine. What could this world possibly give him that would be as sure as those promises or as marvelous as that eternal home? He was just passing through.
Is our faith settled on such securities? Are we trying to gather all that we can from this world and hang on to as much of it as we can after we have gathered it? Are we investing in lives or things? Is the end all of our endeavors measured only by material--temporary--things? What a sad existence for a child of God. Never looking up at the "stars" of promise, never building an altar to God anywhere when we should be building them everywhere, never focusing on the city of God while at the same time trying to make a permanent monument out of our tents. We walk by sight and not by faith and thus are blind. Is it any wonder that we doubt His promises, have no sense of His presence, live in fear of losing it all--even when "all" of it is worthless and earthbound? Don't you think it's time that you and I start living by faith in that old tent of ours, time we danced under the stars of promise with Abraham? This world is not your home no matter how much you try to make it so. And it's because Abraham believed that and lived accordingly that the Spirit of God could say this about him: "And Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and satisfied with life. And he was gathered to his people."