BELONGING NOT BASED ON CIRCUMSTANCES
Where do I belong? Am I living where I should be or should I find something different? How do I know if I am in the right place? Does my geographical location determine whether or not I am happy?
If I base my life on circumstances or my social status or how I feel, I would have a hard time finding my place. I would not be happy, because all these things constantly change.
There is someone who never changes, and because I belong to Him, I need not worry.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.
Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
This is good news. I have been adopted into God’s family. I can make my home anywhere knowing that He is always with me, and I will belong. There is freedom to use my talents, to live life fully, to use what I learn to encourage others along the way.
WE BELONG TO GOD
For those of us who trust Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we have God as our Father. Our circumstances may be hard; we may become ill; people may disappoint; we might feel like we don’t fit in. But we can take comfort in the fact that we belong to God. Nothing can separate us from Him. No one can take us away from His love and mercy.
My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
This song reminds us that we belong to God.
COMBAT DOUBTS WITH TRUTH
Sometimes we may have doubts about our place in the world and in God’s kingdom. We start to doubt that Jesus really loves and cares for us. The lies tell us we are not good enough so we might as well give up. But the truth is that Jesus knows our weaknesses and He still loves us. So we can combat those lies by believing that what God says is true.
1 John 3:18-20 (CSB)
Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.
Sometimes we fail to forgive ourselves and keep heaping guilt when God has already forgiven us. When our own hearts try to bring up the past and say we are unworthy, we need to take action. We remind ourselves that God is greater. He made us worthy. We can celebrate life and hold our heads up high, knowing we are beloved children of God.
Along the way we can join hands with others and rejoice that we are made new by the power of God.
This is Day 5 of Five Minute Friday 31 Days of Free Writes, and the prompt word is belong.
(Confession: This post was hard to write. I spent a lot of time thinking about it, starting to write, then stopping. After chatting with a couple of friends and praying, I finally thought I knew what needed to be written. So the actual writing probably didn’t take more than 5 minutes, but the overall time was much more.)
To read the other posts in this series click on: 31 Days of Encouragement
I am linking up with: #Let’sHaveCoffee, #porchstories, #TellHisStory
Amen. Nothing can seperate us from God’s love!
Amen, Tara! Blessings to you! xo
Gayl, these are such precious truths that you have shared here! These lines in your poem really speak to me today: “Reach out to others, include them in your journey.” Jesus has done so much for us, to include us and to bring us into belonging. Oh may I be inclusive like He is, and open my heart more to the ones around me too. Thank you for the ways that you have included me, and have shared such precious gifts of love! Love and hugs to you Dear Friend!
Bettie, thank you for your prayers as I was writing this post. I love that God works with us and through us as we join our hearts together in Him. He does want us to reach out to others, just like He has reached out to us. Blessings and love to you, dear sister/poet/friend! xoxo
Beautiful message. Yes, we belong. We belong to Him. What a comfort to know we are His! 🙂 Have a blessed week!
Thank you, Melissa. Yes, it is a comfort! Blessings to you!
I love the reminder that no matter where we go or who we are with that we still belong to Him!
Yes, it is very comforting to know we are never out of His sight. He is always with us. Blessings to you!
I can certainly relate to taking longer than 5 minutes for all the prep time. No worries because you worked through it and that means a lot. We do indeed belong! So glad to be in the survivor’s group with you. You truly bless me!!!!
Thank you so much for your encouragement, Karen. I’m so glad to be a blessing to you! I love the survivor group because of all the love and encouragement shared there. You are also a blessing. Blessings to you! xoxo
This is so good, Gayl! I’ve been reminded a lot lately of how we as believers are citizens of heaven, not this world! So, I love how you pointed out our adoption into God’s family. Now that is a very important group to belong to!
Love your collage graphic!
Thank you, Jerralea. Yes, a “very important group to belong to!” Blessings to you!
You wrote such truth in this post. Belonging to God means knowing we are never separated from Him no matter what. It’s a beautiful thing. Blessings!
Thank you for your encouragement, Mary. Blessings to you! xo