We are but pilgrims...
"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart is set on pilgrimage." Psalm 84:5 NKJ. Another translation in the ESV "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion."
"I am but a pilgrim here on earth: how I need a map--and your commands are my chart and guide. I long for your instructions more than I can tell." Psalm 119: 19-20
"Then Peter said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?" Matt. 19:27
"But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them." Heb. 11:16
After we lost our job in Ellensburg and visited with friends in Oregon, we retreated for our Anniversary to the Kitsap Peninsula. It was a time of lamenting, nourishing the soul, faith being restored, listening to God and sharing the good news of the Kingdom and encouragement to four or five of the employees at the hotel. There was a winter storm that had the power out and we were all snowed in.
One front desk guy, who's earrings were upside down crosses, talked to us for a very long time in the empty lobby by the fire one night. He told us his wife was a wiccan witch and we got to hear about his spiritual path and share ours with him. He was so open to us and to receive prayer. Throughout our stay there, we connected with him again. We gave he and his wife a small gift when we left. At our anniversary meal, generator run and candlelight, we got to pray for and get to know our server, who's leg was in a cast and also prayed for the host and his girlfriend, who brought us our waters. The spa was closing because of the storm, but the front desk gal there was a believer and we got to encourage her to continue to be a light in her workplace and share the gospel with the New Age gals there she worked with. We left her with some resources and prayed for her. She was very blessed!
In our quiet times, the passage that really spoke to us while we were there was from Psalm 84 about being blessed for having a heart set on pilgrimage. vs. 5 "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart is set on pilgrimage." Did you even know that the Bible talks about pilgrims being on a highway to Zion? I sure didn't. Even without our van Rhino, we are still pilgrims on a highway to Zion. Sure....it makes sense as we all know there is more our hearts are longing for than just this life. Where the injustices will be made right by the return of our Lord Jesus Christ our true King, who will reign in all righteousness in Zion.... and makes all things new again. There will be no more tears, He has conquered sin and death once and for all, as sin cannot stand in His presence. It goes on to say in verse 6, "As they pass through the Valley of Baca, (Baca is a type of balsam plant that can survive in dry conditions), They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. (Pouring their tears into the wells, they become sources of refreshment and fertility. And the rain begins to fall in the autumn and gives new life to sprouting plants and strength to men) 7 They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the man who trust in You!"
The passage and commentary in the Bible Hub app, brought tears to our eyes and encouragement upon the next steps God would lead us in. From Matthew Henry's commentary, "Those are truly happy, who go forth, and go on in the exercise of religion (I'm inserting the word "faith" here instead of religion), in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, from whom all our sufficiency is. The pilgrims to the heavenly city may have to pass through many a valley of weeping, and many a thirsty desert; but wells of salvation shall be opened for them, and consolations sent for their support. Those that press forward in their Christian course, shall find God add grace to their graces. And those who grow in grace, shall be perfect in glory." To be blessed even more, check out MacLarens commentary on the section, and scroll down to read the section on"Happy Pilgrims".
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/maclaren/psalms/84.htm
Just a section or two from the commentary:
The blessedness of the pilgrims’ experience:
""If we have in our hearts, as our chief aim, the desire to get closer to God, then our sorrows and our tears will become sources of refreshment and fertility. Ah! how different all our troubles, large and little, look when we take as our great aim in life what is God’s great purpose in giving us life-viz. that we should be molded into His likeness and enriched by the possession of Himself. That takes the sting out of sorrow, and although it leaves us in no morbid condition of insensibility, it yet makes it possible for us to gather our tears into reservoirs which shall be to us the sources of many a blessing, and many a thankfulness. He puts them into His bottle; we have to put them into our wells. And be sure of this, that if we understood better the meaning of life, that it was all intended to be our road to God, and if we judged of things more from that point of view, we should less frequently be brought to stand by what we call the mysteries of Providence and more able to wring out of them all the rich honey which is stored in them all for us. Not the least of the blessedness's of the pilgrim heart is its power of transmitting the pilgrim’s tears into the pilgrim’s wells. Brothers! do you bring such thoughts to bear on the disappointments, anxieties, sorrows, losses that befall you, be they great or small? If you do, you will have learned, better than I can say it, how strangely grief changes its aspect when it is looked upon as the helper and servant to our progress towards God.
"But that is not all. If, with the pilgrims’ hearts, we rightly use our sorrows, we shall not be left to find refreshment and fertilizing power only in ourselves, but the benediction of the rain from heaven will come down, and the great Spirit of God will fall upon our hearts, not in a flood that drowns, but broken up into a beneficent mist that falls quietly upon us, and brings with itself the assurance of fertility. And so the secret of turning the desert into abundance, and tears into blessings, lies in having the pilgrim’s heart."
The blessedness of the pilgrims’ arrival:
"‘Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.’ Then there is one road on which whosoever travels is sure to reach his goal. On all others caravans get lost, overwhelmed in a sandstorm, or slain by robbers; and the bleached bones of men and camels lie there on the sand for centuries. This caravan always arrives. But there is one path on which all that you seek you shall have, and you are on it if ‘in your hearts are the ways.’
"So, brethren! let us take the pilgrim scrip and staff; and be sure of this, that the old blessed word will be fulfilled, that we shall not be lost in the wilderness, where there is no way, nor grope and search after elusive and fleeting good; but that ‘the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.’
‘We all, with unveiled faces beholding, are changed from glory to glory.’