Growing up, I cringed when it was time for PE, Physical Education class. I wasn’t an athlete, nor did I have the desire to be the target of a twenty-mile-an-hour ball coming toward my face or body. Because I disliked being hurt, I was the last one picked for team sports.
Where do you fit in when you are not an athlete, beautiful and popular, in the drinking or drug club, or the super smart or geek club? How do you stop feeling like you don’t belong anywhere?
Lost, Invisible, Rejected, Abandoned, and Not Belonging
Through many circumstances in my childhood, I felt lost, invisible, rejected, abandoned, and not belonging, even though I had a roof over my head and a meal to eat. I also felt this way when I was married to my abusive ex-husbands. Having a person in your space doesn’t mean you feel safe, connected, treasured, loved, or like you belong there.
We do not get to choose our circumstances as children, but we can choose them as adults. Once I realized that no imperfect person could ever give me Christ’s perfect love, value, purpose, and belonging, I began to seek God’s truth. I studied His Word to see how to live in Christ’s fullness.
As I studied Christ’s life, I saw him seek out the lost, invisible, rejected, abandoned, imprisoned, condemned, and who felt like they didn’t belong. I heard his words of love. I answered his questions about my heart as he asked questions of other struggling believers. I began to believe, accept, and work with Jesus to realize that God chose to knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalms 139:13)
If God created all things, including me, then how could I not be cherished and belong to him once I accepted Christ as my Savior? I was never lost, invisible, rejected, abandoned, or not belonging in God’s eyes. I was unaware and deceived by the devil and the world’s ways in my mind.
Temporary or Conditional Belonging
The world’s realm is influenced by Satan, which is temporary. The devil has NO power over God’s children. However, he can influence and tempt them if they leave the door open for him and choose to sin. The challenge for mankind is the fact that we are born sinners.
Because Adam and Eve chose to sin, every person inherited their consequence of sinfulness. We are not born knowing God’s Word and having a relationship with him and Jesus. We must seek them and choose repentance, salvation, baptism, and consistent discipleship to become the children of God.
The world can only offer temporary or conditional belonging. Some temporary or conditional belongings include not being or being of the same bloodline, heritage, social or financial group, achievements, fame, power, or otherworldly measures. The problem is it only takes one person to change the rules, get mad at you, score better, or be more powerful to exclude you.
This World is Not Our Home
Our loving Father, God, sent Jesus to earth to make sure we knew we were loved and belonged with him during our earthly life and into eternity. Jesus chose to leave perfect heaven and become the payment for all the sins of the world because he wanted us to live with them for eternity, where we belong. Only the life, death, resurrection, and salvation of Jesus Christ made it possible for us to be saved and reunited with God on earth and into eternity.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:16-17, NASB95
The devil doesn’t care about us. He just doesn’t want us to find Jesus. His goal is to distract, deceive, and twist anything we hear or know about God to make it look like God and Jesus are not real or they don’t care. The only way to break through the schemes of our enemy is to know God’s truth for yourself by studying his Word and through the help of a complete Bible-teaching church. Do not choose one based on feelings or an al la carte that you can pick and choose what to believe.
With God, you are all in or all out. Jesus said. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
Mat. 6:24, NASB95
There is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
John 14:6, NASB95
There is no fence riding. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
1 John 3:7-10, NASB95
We Have a Permanent Family and Home with God
No matter who your parents are, what happened to you, or who hurt, rejected, or abandoned you, God’s arms are ALWAYS open to welcome and love his children. The only way we can become God’s children is through the salvation of Christ Jesus. Once we choose to accept Jesus as our Lord, we are immediately adopted into God’s eternal family!
Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Gal. 4:1-7, NASB95
You belong with Jesus Christ and God now and for eternity if you choose them! Do not look to imperfect people to find your forever home, acceptance, or belonging. Only your loving Father and Creator, God, and Jesus, can fill your ultimate need to know that you belong in your heart, soul, and life.
“Seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”
Deut. 4:29, NASB95
If you would like to know how to receive salvation, please email me at darlacolinet@gmail.com. I would love to welcome you into God’s family and give you some important instructions on how to live as Christ’s disciple.
