You Belong to Jesus

This week at Camp Kedron we will be exploring our own identity with the question:  “Who am I?”  Ultimately the only way people can know themselves in truth is by first knowing the God who created them.  I am more than a name, a body, a mass of cells without meaning, but an eternal soul breathed into a body God knit together in the womb.  Since God created man He alone supplies the wisdom and power to be the man He created me to be.  God said to His chosen people in Jeremiah 29:11:  “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Knowing we belong to God is fundamental in understanding our identity as Christians.  The reality is, however, we can try to find a sense of belonging in far less than God Himself.  We can substitute our accomplishments, goals, relationships, our job, or even being a member of a church.  I recently came across a Scripture Union handout of being a disciple of Jesus based on the Sermon on the Mount.  It was broken into six separate studies in the following order:  belonging, witnessing, God’s Word, relationships, prayer, and possessions.  Admittedly that first one is the concept rarely discussed these days.  In our highly individualistic and increasingly independent society, most people overlook the simple fact we belong to God.  Man expends great effort to try to belong instead of realising in Christ he already finds acceptance and belongs.

All created things belong to God, but most are not aware of this fact.  Our understanding of our identity has direct results in our decisions and desires.  As I heard pastor Steve Mays say, we do not fight for victory, but we fight from victory.  Lack of knowledge leads to us working and praying futilely for what is already ours, and therefore we never progress into practically experiencing what God has already freely provided.  We can try our best to fit in with a particular group, not understanding we have been made in God’s image and we have been accepted into the beloved through Christ by faith.

We will never experience the future God desires for us until we seek and trust God.  When our eyes are opened to see God we see ourselves in truth.  After being exposed to the wisdom and power of God, Job saw himself as vile and Peter asked Jesus to depart from him because Peter recognised his own sinfulness.  “The best men,” Spurgeon quipped, “see themselves in the worst light.”  It is the Light of the World Jesus Christ and the scriptures which illuminate the darkness of our hearts clearly, and lead us to God who awaits us with open arms and joy unspeakable.  How good it is to know we belong to God and live accordingly!