You Belong to Me

I pray that this note finds you well and that there is some part of your spiritual life that is being fed by the season and opportunities of Lent to open the way for God to come into your life more fully. If like me, you have fallen short of some Lenten discipline you intended already, no worries. God is a forgiving God and you may take up your practice again without fear or punishment because we belong to God and He wants us. In fact, God chooses us.

Now being chosen is a high honor in life. When I was a kid growing up and at times in my adult life, there are times when we want to be chosen. As a child, we would pick teams for street football or for a pick up basketball or baseball game and choosing teams was sometimes the most critical moment of the competition. The two best players were usually the captains. After all, you didn’t want one team to be loaded unfairly. If you were a good player or older, you usually got picked first and that was a great feeling. If you weren’t so good, you usually got picked last or not at all if there were too many kids for the game. That was the worst moment. To go unchosen was humiliating and as a “fat kid” who was a little uncoordinated, that happened with enough regularity in my life that I still remember the feeling.

As an adult, it’s a great feeling to be chosen by another person as a friend or as a partner. It’s encouraging to be chosen for a job or a promotion. We like being chosen because it reminds us that we have value, that we are worthy because of who we are. And when we are passed over or outright rejected, it causes heartache that either drives us to try harder or diminishes who we are. Enough rejection and we can become less than the person God created us to be.

Well, with God, you and I are chosen. He chooses us just as we are to enter into a life with Him. He chooses us because we have unique value and gifts that no one else has. That’s Jesus’ way in the Gospels and God’s way throughout the Biblical record. God is always choosing persons just like you and me to be in a living relationship with Him. God is choosing us to live our lives with Him and for Him. God is choosing us and because He has, we know that we are loved and we are important to God.

So, as you go about your life this Lent and throughout the year, keep in mind that you’ve been chosen. You are important. You have value. You belong to God. Allow that reality to seep into your heart and mind and live your life without fear because you have been chosen by God.

See you Saturday evening or throughout the day on Sunday for weekly worship.

Grace and Peace,

WFA