Do You Belong to God, or Does God Belong to You?

“Faith is deliberate confidence is the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”

– Oswald Chambers

Knowing that Christ is the only way to have fellowship with God is one thing, knowing Him is another.  There is a difference from knowing about Jesus and knowing Him personally.  You may be asking, “But how can a person like me know God?  I am no saint or mystic.”  It is a thing called faith.  Faith is believing in Jesus and giving your life over to Him that starts the process.

One time Atheist, C.S. Lewis did his best to disprove Christianity.  He, as many others have, went on a spiritual quest, not to find God, but to prove He did not exist.  Lewis later wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”  When we come to Christ the blinders we have had in life fall away and we not only see Him but we see all else through Him.

Belonging to Christ is not a case that we now become so religious that we are no earthly good.  We are who we are – God made us and loves us just as we are.  Giving our life to Christ means we choose to live by His standards of truth and godliness.  It is never based on what we give up as something.  In Christ we are free (more on that later) but it is based on what we take on, what choices we now make and who we choose to follow.  As Bible scholar A.W. Pink said, “The Christian life is a lift that consists of following Jesus.”

Success-minded people learn that they do not have to change when they follow Jesus because Jesus changes them.  You cannot live for God and stay the same.  He loves you as you are but He loves you enough not to leave you that way.  You cannot do it yourself; it is the work of the Holy Spirit that changes us.  Frederick W. Robertson said, “Love God, and He will dwell with you.  Obey God, and He will reveal to you the truth of His deepest teachings.”

Success-minded people must learn that we in our own power are unable to live by the standards of God.  However, Jesus leads all who belong to Him and believe in Him to a better and more fulfilling life in Him.  It is not what you do but who He is that makes all the difference.