You Are Not Your Own
Who do you belong to?
Verse of the Day
‘You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.’
Today’s Devotional
Can you imagine saving your money for a long time and finally buying a car that you were really excited about? Then once you had bought the car, imagine that someone else walked into your home, took the keys, and drove off with your car. To make matters worse, you then see this person around town in the car you paid for acting as if everything is exactly as it should be.
The above example is not terribly realistic in modern America. We would call the police, investigate, and demand repayment and penalties. But let’s take this example another big step into the unrealistic. Let’s say that you go to rescue your car from the thief, and yet your car has the power of choice. Your car tells you that it prefers the new “owner”, the person who did nothing to have the right to own this car, or any car for that matter.
Today’s verse is very clear. You are not your own. You have been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. You don’t belong to this world, or the people of this world. The world may be trying to “steal” your identity or to convince you of who you need to be. You don’t even belong to yourself. But if we live on auto-pilot without actively pursuing our God-given identity, it’s the same as the car in the above (ridiculous) story deciding to stay with the thief.
A BIG part of your identity is Whose you are. This verse is, in my opinion, the human equivalent of a last name. My last name identifies what family I belong to. When I married, my last name changed to reflect that I belonged with and to my husband. You do not belong to God by birth or by marriage, you belong to God by creation and by the redemptive actions of Jesus.
We go off course when we forget Who we belong to. When we live this life for our own goals, desires, and comforts, things can get messy really quickly. However, the most peaceful and joyful people I know are the people who live their lives knowing that they belong to God. They know their purpose and their identity is designed by God and not the world or their feelings.
I want each of us to remember as we awake each morning, that we are so loved by God that He asked Jesus to pay a very high price to bring us into the family. We get to live out each day knowing that we belong. Because of that, we live in a way that honors God and brings Him glory.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
If a stranger looked at your life, who would he say that you belong to?
How thankful are you for Jesus’s sacrifice?
How can you live today that shows that you belong to God?