By D’Ann Davis
“But the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted heritage.” – Deuteronomy 32:9
God created the world and everything in it. He did so by speaking it into existence. This all-powerful God could have anything He wants to have at any moment in time. Yet for His portion, He has chosen His people. He has chosen us. This good news that a God so holy, so just, so righteous, so beautiful, and so powerful wants to be close to His people, expands even more to the fact that He invited Gentiles into relationship with Him as well. That God would tolerate us, us(!), is a mystery unto itself, but that God has chosen us as His portion and His heritage is truly a gift abundantly beyond all we could ask for or think.
Grasping this is easier said than done. How would it impact our hearts and lives to know that God wants us that much? We, who have nothing to offer Him but our fallen, broken selves, defiled by sin and shame? God was so bent on closeness with us that He sent His only Son to reconcile us to Himself. We know this theologically but often fail to rest in this functionally. It is easier to believe in a distant God who is mad at us than it is a tender Father who is near and wants to be close to us.
Oh that we might be renewed by the transforming of our minds, and believe His words to us in Deuteronomy 32! It is not just that God wants us to want Him. It’s that He wants us. So much so that He has made a way to Himself through Jesus Christ. We can take heart in this reality and know that in Him we are not condemned, we are wanted. We are not merely tolerated, but we are desired. We are not squeaked in, but we are celebrated. We are not needed, but we are redeemed. We are not His problem, we are His portion.
Dear Lord, thank You for loving us far beyond what we know and beyond what we could think or imagine. Thank You for sending Your Son to die on our behalf and reconcile us to You. Thank You for caring for us. Thank You for reaching us. Help us to know Your love and heart for us today. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.