February 7

Day 240: We Want to Be Wanted

There is a term I have been fond of using over the years, one that describes who we are in Jesus. "Trophies of His grace," for that we are. We are living, breathing, doing evidences and examples of the grace of God.

Grace, by definition, is receiving something not deserved. God has extended His grace to us, even though there was nothing in us that warranted His pleasure, nor any merit in us that God should reward.

This fact alone, God's grace, is the determining factor that separates our Christian faith from any other world religion or worldview. It is God's grace, extended to us through Jesus the Son that we remember and celebrate each Sunday morning.

It is true that God is gracious. It is true that He must and will consistently demonstrate His character, thus demonstrate His grace. But there is something more, another motivation on God's part.

"Deuteronomy" means "Second Law." Not a new set of laws, but a recap of the laws already given. The Book of Deuteronomy is the recording of Moses's final sermon. And it was a long one.

In chapter 4, Moses tells us something about God's motivation to express His grace. Beyond simply being God and displaying His character.

"But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are to this day."

Meaning, while God was giving the 12 tribes of Israel an "inheritance" in Canaan, the land he had promised their forefathers, He was also giving Himself an inheritance. Them.

And us. The people of God, the Church now centuries later, are the "chosen people" of God. God in His sovereignty has chosen what we has chosen. Us. To be His desired and acquired inheritance.

God is so possessive of His inheritance that later in the same chapter it tells us that, "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."

Relational jealousy is a positive attribute, and an expected emotion. A husband should be jealous for his wife, and the wife her husband. A covenant relationship requires a perimeter of exclusivity.

God being a jealous God means He will not share His inheritance with any other suitors. God being a jealous God means He will be exclusive in His affections and care for His people.

And in return, He expects His people to be exclusive in their affections toward Him.

That generation of Israelites, the children of the people God had rescued from Egypt, were hearing what Moses had to say in his final sermon. They were being instructed, before they were to soon follow Joshua and enter the land west of the Jordan River.

The generations to follow forgot what Moses had preached that day. They forgot their God. They forgot they were God's chosen inheritance. The entire Old Testament to follow tells us just that.

We are prone to the same. It may be that you've navigated yourself through this past week, not at all mindful of the Lord. It may be that you lived through the past seven days unaware of how God saved you, because He really wanted you.

So we come up on yet another Sunday morning again. And another opportunity to be again reminded: We are His, because He wanted each of us to be His. He chose to "inherit" us, as His own.

And one thing we do share with all humanity. We all want to be wanted.