September 21

For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. — 1 Chr 29:15 BSB

If you have the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then like them, you confess that you are a stranger in this world. This confession comes from a heart of belief and personal experience. You feel yourself to be a stranger in this ungodly world—it is not your home, nor your true environment. While you remain in it for God’s appointed time, you wander through it as a stranger to its ways, its values, its fashions, its principles, and its desires.

Grace has separated you by God’s sovereign power so that, although you are in the world, you are not of it. I can tell you clearly, if you feel at home in the world—if the things of time and sense are what you love; if you feel at ease with the company, values, and principles of the world—then grace has not yet reached your heart. The faith of God's elect does not dwell within you.

The first effect of grace is to separate. This was true in Abraham's case. He was called by grace to leave his father’s land and go to the land that God would show him. And God’s call to his people now is the same: “Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord. “Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty.

Separation from the world is the grand distinguishing mark of true godliness. There may be a physical separation without a heart separation, but what I mean is a separation of the heart, of principle, of affection, and of spirit. If grace has touched your heart, and you possess the faith of God’s elect, you are a stranger in this world, and your life and conduct will show it.