Deuteronomy 26:18 – And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments.
THEME OF THE DAY: HIS TREASURED POSSESSION. How do we view our relationship with the Lord? In asking that question, I don’t want us to first look at ourselves and how we are doing in the Christian life. Never start there and shortly I will tell us why that is a bad place to begin self-examination. Oh, it is important we do examine ourselves. The scripture makes this clear as well as healthy in our walks with the Lord, but it must start, like everything, with the Lord’s view, not one upon ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5).
So, why not start self-examination by looking inside our hearts and outside in our lives at our Christian conduct? It will lead to discouragement, maybe even depression. If we begin to evaluate our relationship with the Lord based first on our thinking, our attitudes, and our actions, welcome to a dark place. We quickly discover many failings, many shortcomings, and never measuring up to what the Lord deserves – a love to Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Luke 10:27). And this grieves us. We want to love Him fully, perfectly, and sincerely, but we don’t. We still sin – too much. We still fail – too much. We still exercise our selfish wills – too much. Don’t begin to do spiritual diagnosis of our condition with ourselves. Never a good place to begin. Robert Murray McCheyne once said, “For every one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.” That is the place to see everything in the Christian life. Start and stay there when we are looking at ourselves and evaluating our walk with the Lord. We will still see our failings, sinning, and not measuring up, but we won’t be met with self-condemnation and a temptation to “do better.” If we learn to see ourselves first and foremost as the Lord sees us, we will actually find our “performance” as Christians growing and progressing. Why? Love. We will be walking more and more in the liberating and freeing truth of His unchangeable and steadfast love. And with that statement, let’s see our relationship with the Lord from the Lord’s view first, not ours.
Treasured possession. Stop. Don’t read on. Go back to those two words. This is how God sees His children. Do we see ourselves as God’s treasured possession? The Apostle Paul did and told the Ephesian believers the staggering truth that God looks at us as “His inheritance” – For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:15-18).
Think of the ramifications in our Christian lives if we believed God sees us as His treasured possession; His inheritance. Here are three. First, we would not be lukewarm toward the things of the Lord. The most disrespectful and hurtful attitude a Christian may present to the Lord is spiritual indifference. If we see what it cost the Lord to call us His treasured possession, we would arm ourselves against the always present danger of becoming lukewarm. The second ramification in our lives should we see ourselves as the Lord’s treasured possession would be an increasing zeal for spiritual growth. We would not neglect church, the Word, and prayer. Spiritual growth, which is really experiencing more and more of the Lord Jesus in fellowship and being changed into His image, would be life’s highest priority. A final ramification if we lived confidently in the truth of being the Lord’s treasured possession would be a longing for heaven which always produces a passion for the Gospel. A person yearning for heaven does not want to go there alone. The more we are lost in the holy amazement of being the Lord’s prized possession, the more we are active in wanting others to know such love too.
His treasured possession. Start seeing ourselves, even examining ourselves, from this Biblical position and we will go a long way in deepening our love and commitment to the One who claims us as His own.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for Your steadfast love and not because I deserve it, but because You are love.”
QUOTE: “Let the truth of being God’s treasured possession motivate us to live for Him with zeal and delight.”