Belonging

SCRIPTURE:  I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. Jeremiah 10:23 NLT

You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. I Cor. 6:19-20 NLT

THOUGHT: We all want to belong, and from cradle to grave it seems we’re always looking for this place, that group, the image, a feeling. Being outcast or outsider spells doom for kids, and even adults with loads of confidence can spiral down if they suddenly lose their place.

A Biblical worldview helps heal what is broken in self-worth and sense of belonging. We find that we already belong to the most important being in the universe; we are loved and wanted and created with purpose. Trusting God with our past, present and future frees us from obsessively searching for anything except maybe more of God and God’s purposes. Self no longer needs to be the center of our lives – a concept that plays havoc with modern mindsets. Our culture places such a high priority on the individual that not belonging to ourselves, answering to another who loves us and bought us with a price, seems antithetical, archaic, undesirable.

Starting at self can ever only end in the same place, increasing self-focus, self-indulgence, and narcissism – mental illness – an individual not able to care for others at all. That is not a world we want to create or live in, yet it is exactly the world for which our enemy fights. A world where the promise of belonging to God is fought with every strategy in his arsenal. A worldview in which the truth is traded for a lie, and the created worshiped rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25).

SONG: Good, Good Father https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfeZw1ZB_2g

PRAYER: You are more than a good Father, God, so much more, and I would not trade a single truth from you for any lie. Cause me to know truth in my innermost being (Ps. 51:6). I gladly belong to you.