Christ’s Own

CHRIST’S OWN

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord. Remind me who I am.

I am loved. I am known. I belong to you.

God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

What a sweeping and mysterious event Paul describes! A promise God made to Abraham to bless all the nations through his descendants (see Genesis 12:1-3) had come true in and through Jesus. Before Jesus, only the Jewish people had relationships with God, but when God came into the world to be with us, a new day began: All people could now be included in that unique relationship. We are included the moment we believe. When we put our trust in Christ, we become his own and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as evidence that we belong to him. We no longer need to struggle with those needling questions that plague so many of us for so long: “Who am I? Who do I belong to?” We can instead rest in the truth that we belong to Christ. Fundamentally, before all else, we are loved by him, we are included in him, and we belong to him.

• What emotions do you feel when you read that the moment you believed, you were identified as Christ’s own? Consider what it might mean for the way you interact with your family or colleagues or those you struggle to love if your whole being believed that you belong to Christ.
• List some truths and qualities you know to be true about Christ. What does it mean to be included in him and called his own?
• Take a moment to quiet yourself in God’s loving presence. Ask him to open your eyes and heart to the ways he wants you to live more fully into the truth that you are Christ’s own. What did God bring to mind?

Father, thank you for including me in Christ. How this works is a mystery, and I cannot claim to fully understand it. But I receive it, Lord, with a humble, grateful heart. I feel small and incapable of all you are calling me to: to love fully and unconditionally, pursue reconciliation and peace, reach out to the oppressed and lonely, share the good news of your Kingdom and love, and walk in your ways and truth. Empower me by your Spirit, whom you have placed inside me, to remember who I am and live the life to which you are calling me. Amen.