(By Rachel Joyce)
Have you ever felt like a misfit? Like you really didn’t belong? Jesus knew what it felt like to be rejected and treated as though He didn’t belong.
The prophet Isaiah recorded: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3-4). He was willing to be rejected by others, to bear our shame and sin, so that we could find full acceptance in Him, so His presence would become our home.
Jesus, our Emmanuel, God with us, made His home among us so that we could have a home with Him.
His desire was for us to belong to Him, to find our place of belonging in Him. The apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, “You also are among them, called to belong to Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:6). You were created to belong to the Lord God Almighty. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you belong to Him, and as you begin to live out the truth of this, you will discover new freedom, peace, and joy.
Listen to the words of Jesus as He prayed shortly before going to the cross to put away your sins: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world…I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them" (John 17:24-26).
His heart’s longing is for you to live out the truth that you are accepted in Him. Because He is not limited by time or space, there is nowhere you can go that you cannot find your belonging in Him.
Let that truth sink so deeply into your heart that it drives out any lies about your true identity in Christ.
You are called to belong to Jesus Christ. You are fully known and completely loved. You are accepted in Him and nothing and no one can change that.
No matter what you may be struggling with, regardless of what you have done, turn back to Him. He longs to enfold you in His loving arms and whisper in your ear, “Daughter, you are mine. My blood covers every sin. In Me, you are cleansed and made whole. Rest in my acceptance. Rest in my love. I am your home.”
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