“The God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me.” Acts 27:23 NIV.
In each person’s relational DNA, God placed the need to belong.
My thoughts and comments today are about, “your need to belong.”
I can think of few things more important for your feeling of well-being than to have a confident sense of belonging. Without belonging, wherever you are you feel lost; whoever you’re with you feel alone. Even a crowd can be a lonely place when no one knows you there.
At creation, God looked at all the magnificent, natural realm He had made and said, “It is very good.” Genesis 1:31. But when He looked at the creature He had formed with His own hands and into whom He had breathed the breath of life, God said, “It is not good that man should be alone . . I will make a mate suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18. The Bible says, “God sets the solitary in families.” See Psalm 68:6 NKJV. No man or woman who is alone for long remains content.
From the very beginning, the One who created you declared that man was not made to live in isolation from others. In everyone’s relational DNA is the God-given desire and need for community with others. A family offers a circle of people with whom you safely belong. Marriage gives you a life-long mate to whom you belong. Friendships produce a growing circle where you feel you belong. A church family connects you to people with whom you belong.
Salvation affords you an eternal family and heavenly place where you will forever belong securely. Jesus was clear, “I go to prepare a place for you and receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also.” John 14:2-3. Everyone is looking for “their place,” a place where you fit, a place where you belong. You will only have a soul fully at rest when you choose to “belong to Jesus.” Sin separates; grace places you back with the One to Whom you truly belong.
The Savior brings you to the Father you always hoped for, where you discover you are the child He always wanted. What a great place to be. Your previous status, as well as mine, was, “At the time, you were separate from Christ . . without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ . . consequently you are . . fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s own household . . in Him being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” Ephesians 2:12-22 NIV. Redeemed and belonging to God and one another is where you belong, because He’s the One to whom you belong. In the Old Testament, God had a Temple for His people; today, God has a people as His temple. See 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 NKJV.
The importance of an individual is best found in the people and things with which one chooses to be identified. “You are – a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people – belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His glorious light.” Read 1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV. Notice the descriptions are all plural, not singular – a generation, not an individual; a priesthood, not a priest; a nation, not a citizen; a people, not a person – we belong to God and belong to each other. Life is most satisfying when understanding you belong to God and belong to each other.
Today, my prayer for you is to never forget where and to Whom you belong.