March 16

Make sure no outsider who now follows God ever has occasion to say, ‘God put me in second-class. I don’t really belong.’ And make sure no physically mutilated person is ever made to think, ‘I’m damaged goods. I don’t really belong’”. Isaiah 56:3 (MSG)

It can be so easy at times to feel as if you are on the outside looking in, or to feel that everyone is looking at you in ways that say—you don’t measure up, or you don’t belong.
 
However, the truth speaks far louder than any lie ever could, and God tells you that you do belong, and first and foremost, you belong to Him!  He understands the desire to find a place of acceptance, to fit in, to feel approved of, and you have found that dear heart, for you are already fully accepted in the Beloved One, Christ Jesus your Lord.  Accepted by Him in a way no other person in all the earth could ever possibly do.  It is only in God’s eyes that you are fully known, and in being wholly seen, you are loved unconditionally and completely, just for who you are.
 
God desires that we learn who we are in Him, and how He made us to be in the world, finding acceptance within our self in that perfect fit.  To the degree that we reject ourselves, is the degree we open the door to rejection from others.  To the extent that we accept God’s great love for us, and allow that love to heal the broken places, the unbelief, the lies, or the fear, is the extent we can accept ourselves and accept others too.
 
Dear one, you belong to Him, and you belong in the world He has made.  Don’t let anyone tell you, or even tell yourself, that you are second class, damaged goods, or don’t belong. Listen instead to the heart of the One Who loves you so.  You are first class, at the top of His list, made in His image; an overcomer, strong in His might and power, revealer of His glory, child of the King! 
 
Oh yes, beloved, beautiful one, that is you, and it is all so very true!
 
Prayer:
 
Jesus, I ask Your forgiveness today for all the ways and times I have felt less than; broken beyond repair; lost in a way that could not be found.  That is not what You say about me, therefore, it is not true!
 
Help me to see myself as You see me.  To love myself, even with all the faults and flaws, the way You love me—unconditionally, with great understand, kindness and compassion, and with great hope and joyful expectation of who I was created to be!
 
I belong to You Lord, spirit, soul, and body, and in the light of Your love and truth, is where I most long to be!