Annie
Scriptures: Galatians 2:20 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 1 John 3:1 Isaiah 64:8 Ephesians 3:20-21
Have you ever read the Heidelberg Catechism? It takes a while and considerable resolve to read all of it, but it begins with a question that is one that we all need to grasp the answer to: 1. Q. What is your only comfort (hope) in life and death?A. That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
This was written in 1563 yet the messages the words deliver are such a powerful antidote to how the world of today tells us we must live. We are told that it is our right to define our own identity, to be ourselves, to follow our own truth. However, the boundaries of that insist that we follow the loudest voice, conform to ideologies that confine freedom, not release it, in us. As believers in Christ, we may read and say we believe what Paul wrote, that we are not our own, we belong to Christ, but do we live that? Do we practically live in the comfort and hope of being a child of God, body and spirit?
The prophet Isaiah uses the image of us as clay in the Potter’s hand several times, emphasising that the clay cannot tell the Potter what to do. We are the handiwork of the One who created the clay itself and fashions it the way He knows is best for it to be fashioned. We need to be malleable in His hands, not fighting against His design for us, but allowing Him to create the wonderful creation He sees as perfect and unique to each one of us. There is such freedom in choosing to allow God to work unhindered by our interference, an assurance and confidence that He actually does know what He is doing.
Every facet of who we are was created by God. Our personality, our emotions, our talents, even our sense of humour, He shaped. And He did it with immense care and intention, all under pinned by an abundance of love that is beyond our comprehension. Why then would anyone want to live outside of that love? Which brings us back to that 500 year old question – what is our only comfort and hope in life and death, and Who paid the price for it? Our comfort, our Hope lies forever, firmly in the Hands of the One whose blood was poured out at Calvary as the absolute propitiation for our sins. The One who is able to do exceedingly and extravagantly more in our lives than we can ever begin to imagine. The One whose eye never sleeps, who watches over us day and night. The One who makes us rise like eagles as He bears us on His mighty wings. The One who declares that we are His and He will never let us go.
Acknowledging that we are not our own, does not mean that we merely coast along, we were bought with a price, we are bond slaves and belong to our Master. This sounds as if life in Christ can never be a life of freedom, yet this could not be further from the truth. The price that Christ paid bought a freedom that is full of Grace, full of unutterable love, mercy and justice, that instils in us a yearning only to serve Him and serve with Him. Oh, we do fail, so often, to live in that Grace but, the moment we repent, weeping tears in our weakness and frailty, those outstretched, scarred hands of our Saviour scoop us up, cleansing and healing our brokenness with His unfailing love. Setting us on our feet to keep on going along the path He has prepared for us, to keep on walking humbly with Him, in the sure and certain Hope that eternity with Him is our home. We are not our own, we belong to Him, forever.
Prayer: Abba Father, strengthen our resolve to recognise and lay aside our own ways, to truly understand what You paid in order to give us Hope and Comfort now, and life everlasting with You and the whole company of Heaven. In Jesus mighty Name we pray, Amen.
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