Influence

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It has been a long while since I have posted anything here. I have been busy completing three years toward my B.A. in English and my senior year is underway. My current class (Creative Writing) has finally given me the space to take off the tight harness of academic writing rules, and it feels SO GOOD!! After reading my first assignment, Mom and Daddy gave it their thumbs up and suggested I make it a blog post, so here it is. It is my story and their story. It's a little longer than my usual posts, but as with everything I have ever posted here, I pray it encourages you to run "up the sunbeam to the sun" (C. S. Lewis). "Follow my example,  as I follow the example of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV I sat above them on the stairs. Looking down through the window-like openings in the partition between the living room and the stairway, I listened to the basketball players, football players, baseball players, wrestlers, track athletes, both the lettermen ...

My God, My Very Own

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Everyone longs to belong.


There is a deep-rooted need, common to all, to have a place among our people, to be part of a family, a group of friends, to be integral to an organization or community, to belong. And we want to belong truly, not just have our name on an impersonal list of members. We long for a sense of wanted-ness, even needed-ness among the people who matter most to us.

There is a good reason for our desire to belong.

God wove that very longing deep into the fibers of our hearts when He made us in His image.

We long to belong because God longs to belong!

I have thought a lot about what it means for me and all of God's people to belong to God, but have never really given much thought to how much God has told us about His desire to belong to us! Are you, like I was, a little surprised at that thought?

In God's Word, there are almost a thousand instances of the name "God" being preceded by a possessive adjective (my, your, his, her, our, their). The very first time this occurs, it is God Himself who expresses His own desire to belong to His chosen people!

"I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you."  (Genesis 17:7, NIV) [Emphasis mine]

His idea.
His desire.
His covenant.
His EVERLASTING covenant!

My finite mind cannot even approach full comprehension of the magnitude of that thought.  It is literally a mind-blower! That God, being who He is, (knowing me and who I really am), would desire to make Himself my very own is more than my heart can hold. That He has made Himself MY God, MY Father, MY King and MY Friend--I am overwhelmed by the intimate, personal nature of this God who is like no other!  Of all the majestic and storied names God has given us to know Him by, the one that leaves me breathless, is "Mine." I want to shout with Isaiah,

"LORD, you are my God;
   I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
   you have done wonderful things,
   things planned long ago."


What does it mean to you to know that God wants to be YOUR God?
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Many thanks to my brother and sister-in-love and nephew
for their permission to use this picture I took of them in a moment of sweet "belonging!"
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Joining Emily Wierenga for:





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