Home 
Painting the walls. Hanging the family portrait. Rearranging the furniture. Replacing a couch. Setting out pictures of friends. Sounds like a normal weekend remodeling project in the suburbs, right? But what if it were a hotel room? Would that be a little weird?
Then why do we do the same thing with our lives in general?
Hopefully, you’ve never redecorated a hotel room…mainly because it makes no sense. Hotels were designed to temporarily house people. They offer a safe place to stay for a little while, but that’s all; they were never intended to house people indefinitely. They were never designed to be the final destination. You’re only going to be in the hotel room for a night or two, and then you’ll continue on your journey.
Thus, it makes zero sense to invest our lives into something that’s as temporary as a hotel room.
But we make this exact same mistake, over and over again, in other ways.
We pour our money into land, homes, cars, and other worldly possessions instead of investing in God’s Kingdom, knowing that those things won’t last forever. Billions of dollars are spent each year on products that promise longer and better life, in light of the fact that all of us will inevitably face death. We chase one earthly thrill after another trying to find some new state of pleasure.
In short, we focus our efforts, time, money, and energy on this world instead of the one to come.
God had a solution for that flawed mindset. Over and over again, His Word reminds us that this life is a temporary one; this life is short compared to eternity. We are merely passing through this life, so we shouldn’t get too attached to it. Listen to what God said in Hebrews 11:11-16.
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Did you catch that? “Aliens and strangers on earth….” As Christians, we need to be searching for the eternal city God has built for us…instead of the temporary one we’ve built for ourselves. Don’t get too attached to this “hotel room” on Earth. It doesn’t last forever.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Eternity
God’s Plan
Home
Investment
Journey
Life
Materialism
Possessions
Priorities
Purpose
Temporary
Travel
Warning
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
