Motivation Monday - "LIVE LIKE JESUS” Summer Series: Live Like You Belong
LIVE LIKE YOU BELONG
3RD in a Summer Series - LIVE “LIKE” Jesus
“Belonging is an act of being unashamed. Unbelonging carries the weight of shame, and even if the shame is of our own imagination, it feels so real. And so we act out of that shame and write ourselves out of relationships before we give them a chance to begin.”
Last week I had three conversations with women where the yearning for belonging was expressed. Even in a crowded room, a church service, a social gathering, we can feel like the only person who doesn’t belong there. We doubt the invitation was meant for us.
What do you long for? The word longing comes from the same root as the word long in the sense of length in either time or space and also the word belong. In its full richness to long suggests to yearn a long time for something that is a long way off. It suggests a yearning for someone we can belong to and that belongs to us.
So – what do you long for? Who do you long for? Is this a longing that you have held close for longer than you care to admit? Is it a longing to belong? So many of us long for true friendship. We long for deep connections with our girlfriends, our husbands, or our kids. Each relationship looks different, but at the heart of them all is our desire to be known, and for us to know others. Real friendship is what we're after.
The dictionary also defines belonging as ‘fitting in’ and being ‘suitable’. In what time in your life have you felt like you really fit in? Do you think you would have to change who you were to fit in with the group’s expectations?
Christ left us with a wonderful example of what it’s like to make other people experience a sense of belonging. Before the end of His life, Jesus prayed for you and for me. He valued us in relationship with each other, with Him and with the Father.
Jesus prayed in John 17:24:
“Father, I ask that you allow everyone that you have given to me to be with me where I am!
Belonging is an act of being unashamed. Unbelonging carries the weight of shame, and even if the shame is of our own imagination, it feels so real. And so we act out of that shame and write ourselves out of relationships before we give them a chance to begin.
We self-exclude ourselves from certain groups of people.
We tell ourselves that we don’t measure up to the standards we assume they’ve set.
That’s not the standard of Jesus.
With Him, we are enough.
We belong. With Him.
The mistakes, slip ups or sins you’ve made along the way (because we all have) don’t exclude you from belonging. The wonderful news is that the Father chose us. He chose the good, the bad and the ugly parts of us.
In Ephesians:4, Paul writes, “For we were chosen in Him before the creation of the world.”
Amazing, isn’t it?
We can be grateful that the words of Jesus recorded in John 15:16 were spoken right to our hearts, once and for all, for all of eternity: "You did not choose me, but I chose you".
As a result of His choosing us to belong, Jesus is declaring that we have been found more than suitable, and we fit in to His Kingdom community! We have a place there – a place of honour right in His presence. We can be ourselves, loved for ourselves, accepted for ourselves.
You don’t need to change who you are or pretend to be someone else in God’s presence. When there is that safety, and your longing to just be you is satisfied in this relationship of belonging, you have confidence to go outside of that space and invite others to belong.
Friends, would you find your belonging in God’s presence this week!
Whether in struggle, or in joy, in you God we belong.
You've called us out from our separateness,
bringing us into the fullness of your family.
When our souls desire to take shelter and hide,
call us home Father.
When our hearts become disoriented,
retune the orientation of our love towards You.
When we blanket our vulnerability with fear,
remind us we are fully known and fully loved.
Grace us with the courage to love,
embrace and empower others,
as You have done with us.
In you we live and move and have our being.
In you God, we belong.
Amen.
By Elle Pyke
I believe in you!
God bless.
Cathie