Jealously guarding your sense of belonging

Ian Rea
Imagine having been born into a family that never pays any attention to you. Suppose that your parents and siblings never gives you a chance to express your personal views or desires. Suppose that they never share the family resources with you.Would you feel like part of such a family? Would you feel like you belong? People can be made to feel like they do not belong to families, organisations, societies and even nations.  Selfish and ambitious people do not create an environment that makes other people feel like they belong, particularly when such people are in leadership positions.
In many cases, leaders do not make conscious decisions to erode their followers’ sense of belonging, but sometimes they do.
However, let us not be too quick to see humans as the root of the problem, they are not. Satan does not want you to feel like you belong, whether it is to your family, church, organisation or nation. Why?
Satan does not want humans to be free. Free people are dangerous to him. Satan does not want you free. Not at all! He wants you to be bound up by feelings of fear, apathy, powerlessness and worthlessness. If you have believed Satan’s lie that you do not belong, then you will be bound by all these things.
Do you feel like you do not belong? If you do, what can you do about it? The key to countering Satan’s lies are the 3RS – recognise the lies for what they are, reject them and then replace the lies with the truth.
But what is the truth?
Firstly, the Bible says, “To all who received [Christ], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).
If you have received Christ and believed in His name, you belong to God’s family. You are His son or daughter.
So even if your earthly family has rejected you, you belong to God’s. In this regard, the Psalmist writes, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me,” Psalms 27:10.
Secondly, the Bible says that, “From one man [God] made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live” (Acts 17:24-26)
So you are living in our beloved Zimbabwe because God determined it. You are not here by accident.
Therefore, do not let satan or any human being lead you to believe that you do not belong. If you allow this to happen, satan will render you powerless to fulfil the purpose that God has for your life.
Satan recognises that you are “God’s workmanship (this word could be translated masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for [you] to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
Therefore, he will do everything he can to distract you from the work God has planned for your life.
Don’t believe Satan’s lies. Recognise, reject and replace the lies. You belong. Live in the freedom of belonging and act as someone who belongs. God has work for you to do.
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