Jan 04

I love the words of Psalm 100:3: "Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his."

This is an acknowledgment of ownership. But other translations of this verse add yet a deeper insight into our own existence, for they declare that God made us "and not we ourselves."

This truth has applications beyond the fact of an acknowledgment that God formed the Israelites as a people for himself. It also means that he created all human beings.

At first, this might sound too obvious to state: Of course we did not make ourselves. How can something that does not exist cause itself to exist? The folly and illogicalness of such reasoning should be obvious. Nevertheless, those who do not want to acknowledge God's ownership of them must pursue such nonsense because there is no other way to avoid the obvious. Ownership and origin cannot be separated.

There are four verses that can be grouped together to make even more dramatic the powerful truth we learned from 1 Cor. 6:19, that we are not our own.

1 Cor. 6:19: "You are not your own."
Ezek. 18:4: "For every living soul belongs to me." Or as other versions put it: "All souls are mine."
Jer. 10:23: "A man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.
Rom. 14:7,8: "For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

It would surely be a good thing if each person who claims to belong to God in Jesus Christ affirmed each morning before starting his or her day this basic truth about his or her own existence. Every day we need to remind ourselves that we are not our own, that we belong to God, and that we are not free to do as we wish with the new day before us, but that we have been put here to accomplish God's plan for our life. Yes, you and I need someone to remind us of this truth each day.

Someone just did.

Scripture for today: 1 Ptr. 2:9, 10
Thought for today: I belong to God; I am one of his people.
Prayer for today: Holy Spirit, please remind me each day to remember this truth about myself. May I never forget where I came from or to whom I belong. Thank you. Amen.

JAN 04