Come Down, Lord #10 – We Belong to God

A couple years ago I read a collection of prayers by the Puritans from the 16th and 17th centuries. I felt impacted on two levels. On the one hand, their prayers of worship were very helpful. But on the other hand, their prayers about penitence and deprecation were so terribly negative, they were downright depressing!

Although they were assured of forgiveness through Christ’s death, they seemed to carry around the heavy weight of their sinfulness.

Some Christians seem to only feel good when they feel bad about themselves.

True, we are nothing compared with God and apart from Christ we can do nothing. But dwelling only upon our sins and our sinful nature can make God feel distant. As Christ’s followers, we are forgiven! (1 John 1:9). We are God’s beloved children! (1 John 3:1).

Isaiah affirms: “Yet you, LORD, are our Father” (Isaiah 64:8). God is always a loving, personal, caring, good, merciful, compassionate, reliable Father. He will never fail you and is always with you.

Isaiah further acknowledges: “We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). As God-over-all and as a creative artist, he can shape us any way he wants. His shaping is never for harming or hurting us, and always for our good and his glory.

Because we belong to God, we chose to align our will with God’s will, moving from a position of willfulness to willingness, being grateful for the potter’s touch rather than resentful of the potter’s purpose for us.

Isaiah adds, “After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?” (Isaiah 64:12). God is not a “do nothing, say nothing” God. Rather, he speaks and acts on our behalf and for our benefit. Even in discipline, he never crushes us and will never disown us, for we belong to him.

R. Kent Hughes says that a prayer God loves to hear and is ready to answer is for God to do his will, for his glory, in his way, by his gospel, in our generation, without holding back.

Rather than asking God to tell us what his will is so that we can do it, we ask God to do his will in us.

“Lord, don’t hold back. Do your will in me, freely and entirely. May your kingdom come into my life. For I am yours and you are mine.”

Action Step: Several times today, say to yourself, “I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me.”

~ Pastor Dave