Blessed to be His!
The Lord, in His generous mercy, has blessed me in a multitude of ways. I have a beautiful (and patient and forgiving) wife, three wonderful boys, plenty of food and a nice house. I was raised in a loving environment with caring parents, grandparents, sister, aunts, uncles and cousins. I have good and loyal friends, and a nice church family. I want for nothing in this life. Yet, of all my many blessings, the greatest of all, is belonging to the Lord.
Oh how blessed I am that the Lord God chose me and that He called me to His Son. (Rom. 8:29-30). There is no greater honor than this. As the song says: "Who am I that the highest King would welcome me?" (Who You Say I Am, R. Morgan & B. Fielding). How could I be so blessed? What did I do to deserve it? The answer of course is nothing. I did nothing to deserve it. Nor is there anything I could have done to deserve such a wonderful blessing. God gives the gift of salvation freely and all I had to do was humbly accept it.
All of my other blessings are temporary. I could lose everything tomorrow. A tornado or faulty wiring could leave me without family and home in the blink of an eye. Just like that, the most important things of this world could be gone. What's more, not only could I lose everything in this world, it is a certainly that one day I will lose everything. I will someday leave my house one way or another. My parents will die. My wife will die. My children will die (though I pray it is after my wife and I are gone to Heaven). None of those earthly blessings will last forever. One way or another they will all be taken from me, but the blessing of belonging to the Lord can never be taken away. In fact, it is the knowledge that I am secure in Him, that allows me to cope with losing all the other blessings. It is the knowledge that Jesus has redeemed me, claimed me as His own, and shall one day wipe away all of my tears, that allows me to look at all the misery and evil in this world and still have hope.
Being part of the popular group at school, or work, or church is meaningless. Having dinner at the White House or Governor's mansion is not a big deal. Being personal friends with the entire cast of The Avengers or being invited to J-Lo's wedding are fleeting "honors" that do not matter long. The Creator of the Universe, the King of EVERYTHING chose me! ME! I'm not a rockstar, Hollywood A-lister (or even Z-lister) or politician. I don't have a kazillion YouTube views or Facebook "likes." I can't play football very well, my singing voice is so-so at best, and no one would ever recognize me outside of my circle of friends. But Jesus doesn't care about any of that. He knows that none of that matters. He loves me and he is going to let me live in His Holy Kingdom with Him for all eternity. And when I really break it down, that's the only thing that matters! Yes I am blessed to have a wonderful family and nice home, but most of all, I am blessed to be His!
Today's prayer:
Most merciful God, thank You for calling me. I am not worthy to belong to You, but You in Your infinite mercy do not call only the worthy, for then none would ever be called. Nothing means more than belonging to You, and next to the blessing of being Yours, all other "honors" are mere dust.