TO CHEW ON: "But now, thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
'Fear not for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name
You are Mine.' " Isaiah 43:1-2.
Before I was married, I used to watch with yearning the little signs of belonging between husbands and wives. A man would put his arm across the back of the pew behind his wife as they sat in church, or around her waist as they walked. A woman would pick a piece of lint off her husband’s suit or straighten his tie (that was back when men still wore ties!). I watched and longed to belong to someone like that. God’s words to Isaiah about Israel remind me of these intimacies between man and wife: “I have called you by your name; You are Mine.”
Like the ideal earthly husband God is there at our side when life goes sideways. No, He won’t keep trouble away, but He will go through it with us, keeping the rivers from overflowing us, the fires from burning us, bringing back the strays, restoring sight to blind eyes and hearing to deaf ears.
Whatever your life situation, you don’t need to be alone. Feel God pulling you close today and whispering in your ear, “You are Mine.”
PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for wanting me. Thank You for sending Jesus to redeem me. I love belonging to you!
MORE: Some things God says about you:
1. You are His chosen possession - Deuteronomy 7:6.
2. He will answer your prayers - Psalm 4:3.
3. He chose you, not on the basis of who you are, but so your very inadequacies will point to His abilities - 1 Corinthians 1:24-30.
4. The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life is your receipt to prove that you belong to God - Ephesians 1:13, 14.
5. You are set to inherit all that is His - James 2:5.
6. Just like marriage changes your identity, belonging to Him does too - 1 Peter 2:9,10.
************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
