Belonging in Heaven

ALL – Psalm 67:1-7
ALL – Proverbs 23:29-35
OT – Isaiah 41:17-43:13
NT – Ephesians 2:1-22

Interesting passage for the day: Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian. – Galatians 2:19, The Living Bible

Thought: It’s nice to belong. No, it’s amazing to belong.

Everyone’s been an outsider at some point. Being an outsider is just…awkward. Perhaps you spend some time living in someone else’s house. You’re used to having chores at home, but in their house you feel like you have no role at all and you’re useless. Maybe you’re visiting a new church and you discover that they have some sort of “understood” pattern for when to stand and when to sit—but they don’t communicate it verbally, so you’re constantly finding yourself in the wrong position. Or perhaps you’re not into sports and someone takes you to a basketball game. You’re barely interested but you feel stupid knowing nothing, and you can’t even begin to follow what’s going on.

It’s that first-ever day of school feeling. “Will I ever really belong here?”

When we first get to know God’s people, everything’s new and foreign. They open up the Bible and tell us strange things. We realize we don’t belong. But we want to belong. We recognize the truth, the grace, the love, the righteousness. We want to know Jesus.

And then we give our lives to Jesus—we submit to Him, confess how awful we’ve been, ask for forgiveness and receive it. He welcomes us into His family, takes us by the hand and walks us up to the throne of His Father—now ours. And the heavenly Father says, “You belong in my household with every other Christian.”

We who trust in Jesus Christ are no longer strangers. We belong in God’s house. We belong.

Question: Do you still feel like an outsider, or have you realized in your heart that you belong with God? What is keeping you from being at rest in Jesus’ family?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.