First of all, this Christian band has an awesome name! I am confident they base it on Ephesians 4:29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear”. It’s a verse that encourages building up one another with wholesome words versus tearing down others with rotten words.
This beautiful song is about the realization and admission that when we experience tough times we need to remember we are not home yet. We will see problems in this life in a better light if we look through the lens of heaven’s glory. The apostle Paul writes, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us”. (Romans 8:18).
Another biblical message relative to this song is that we don’t belong here. And in sync with that concept is Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself”. The apostle Peter writes that we are aliens, strangers, or foreigners (I Peter 2:11). We do not belong here but rather in heaven; however, we have to travel through this life to get to our final destination of glory where there are no problems, trials, or tears (Revelation 21:1-4).
If we are having severe difficulties juggling with the problems of this world as a Christian, maybe we need to remember who we are and whose we are. Maybe we need to spend more time looking up in spirit and less time looking down in the mouth. And I am very well aware of the saying, “When you are up to your neck in alligators it’s hard to remember what you went into the swamp for” but we also need to know that we belong to Jesus and before long it will be over and we will be with Him in glory. Paul calls it momentary, light affliction in II Corinthians 4:16. It ain’t easy but we have to fight on and focus and refocus daily.
Read II Corinthians 4:8-5:10 and then listen to an encouraging song by Building 429 call Where I Belong. Then have a day with some peace and serenity and joy in the Lord.
2 Corinthians
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.