Top 7 Bible Verses For Those Feeling Homesick

Here are seven Bible verses that I hope can help those who are homesick.

Second Corinthians 2:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

The Apostle Paul knew very well about what he was writing about as he often suffered deprivation from hunger, cold, and even his beloved Jerusalem and wrote “To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless” (2nd Cor 4:11) so he knew what it was like to be homesick. Just read how far Paul traveled in his missionary journeys in the Book of Acts and how he suffered so greatly because of it, but he also understood, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1st Cor 9:16b)!

Isaiah 26:3-4 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

The Hebrew word for “stayed” is “camak” and means “to lean upon, to lay, to rest” or “to support one’s self” so we can say that God will everyone in perfect peace whose mind leans upon, rests in, and has the support of God because they trust in Him. He is the “everlasting rock” or again, as the Hebrew says of “everlasting” (Hebrew “`owlam”), that rock is “perpetual,” or “forevermore” and perhaps that can help the person whose homesick to have the peace of God since all believers are at peace with God (Rom 5:1).

Isaiah 66:13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

What a beautiful description of the love of God and who better understands comforting a child than their own mother? What tenderness with which Isaiah writes and the Jews who read this may have still been in captivity at the time. They still had a hope that God would preserve a remnant for Himself and they would return them to their beloved Jerusalem, so Isaiah must have been writing this to comfort them in their homesickness. May He do the same for you if you are far from home right now.

Hebrews 13:5-6 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Is the author of Hebrews saying that there is a connection between the love of money and contentment? I believe so, but we can also see how he stresses the faithfulness of God Who is a God that will never, ever leave them or not once forsake them, even they forsake Him (at least for a time). This gives hope for the homeless, the prodigals, the impoverished, and those who are far from home. You can go anywhere on the planet and God is still not going to leave you or forsake you. It’s doesn’t matter where you are; it only matters that “the Lord is [your] helper.”

Matthew 8:19-20 “And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

This is not our home. We are only sojourners on a journey and just passing through and headed for the eternal kingdom to enter into His rest. Where the ancient Israelites refused to enter into, we will (Heb 4). Those who have died in the faith before us “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb 11:13) and they, like us, “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Heb 11:16).  I think that’s why Jesus never claimed a home after He started His ministry because neither was this His home…yet!

Mark 10:29-30 “Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Here is a great picture of the future home of the children of God. They may lose much in this world but everything in this world is passing away anyway, so why try to hold on to that which is passing away when you can cling to that which is eternal? Especially considering they gain a hundredfold in brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers, and in lands, but the most significant gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ (John 3:16; Rom 6:23), freely given by God’s graciousness (Eph 2:8-9).

Heb 11:13, 16 “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 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 for them a city.”

How was Paul able to endure so much in his life? He wrote, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil 4:12). Since experience is the best teacher and repetition is the key to memorization, Paul had to learn in the classroom of life how to be content with circumstances. How many lessons did it take for Paul to learn to be content? No one but God knows. The important point is contentment doesn’t come naturally; it has to be learned and learning takes time.

Conclusion

Those who are serving in the military are very prone to being homesick because they are separated from family and friends and are missing the holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries but also important life events like the birth of a child, marriages of loved ones, and the deaths of family and friends and having to miss their funerals. This can be very difficult but there is reassurance in the Word of God for all of us because we know that this is not our home (thankfully!) as we are “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb 11:13) but we “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Heb 11:16).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.