We're Marching To Zion

Come, we that love the Lord,

and let our joys be known,

Join in a song with sweet accord,

Join in the song with sweet accord,

And thus surround the throne,

and thus surround the throne.

We're marching to Zion,

Beautiful, beautiful Zion,

We're marching upward to Zion, the

beautiful city of God. 

That wasn't the easiest song to sing - I want you to know that!  I may be paralyzed, but this hymn makes me want to march.  Oh, boy, am I marching to Zion... when I sing this hymn I'm heading for heaven... living life here on earth as though eternity depended on it.  And it does!  It's why the Bible says, "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials ... " and in Psalm 119, "It is good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees"  and , " rejoice in our sufferings...."  These are marching orders -- marching to Zion orders!

            But you know human nature doesn't like it, it gags on that perspective - count it all joy, rejoice in your sufferings.  You know how it goes... every time you have a headache, every time your joints get stiff, that suffering tries to rivet you to the pain of the present... suffering is always trying to blind you to the realities of heaven.  Human nature would rather lick its wounds and get you to say, "Heaven? Come on, that's pie in the sky.  The future doesn't count."  But it does count.  So much so that everything else, no matter how real it seems to us, is hardly worth a blink of the eye. My friend, Tim Stafford, explains, "This is why commands to "Rejoice in suffering" often irritate us... we think Scripture isn't in touch with our reality, but these marching orders, these commands and encouragements, are written with a heavenly perspective.  And perspective changes everything."

            The Bible tells us to "rejoice in suffering"... it tells you to "welcome today's trial as friends" because God wants us to march into the reality he has in mind for us, and that's the only reality that ultimately counts, right?  It requires your gutsy faith to do that, but as you trust God, you move beyond the present into the future.  In fact, you create the very future God has intended for you.  We bring the joy of Zion, the happiness of heaven, right into the present tense when we live that way.  So today set your focus not on what is seen, but what is unseen.  For what is seen is only temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  That's something to remember as today you keep marching to Zion.

MUSIC:  Words:  Isaac Watts; 1707   Music: Robert Lowry, 1867       Public Domain

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