Amma Syncletica: What country are you living for?

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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, admitting that they were foreigners 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. Hebrews 11:13-16

“Those who have endured the labours and dangers of the sea and then amass material riches, even when they have gained much desire to gain yet more and they consider what they have at present as nothing and reach out for what they have not got. We, who have nothing of that which we desire, wish to acquire everything through the fear of God.”

Amma Syncletica (4th century) was a wealthy, beautiful young women from Alexandria, who is known for giving her entire inheritance to the poor and helping women become disciples of Jesus Christ in The Monastic Way by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007) 99.