“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

One of the beautiful benefits of being a child of God is that we’re a part of God’s family. He loves us. He provides for us. He forgives us. He even has an inheritance for us. Belonging to God prompts a sense of security and serenity. There is no better place to be than in the family of God. What a blessing it is to belong to God.

In Ephesians 1:13-14 the apostle Paul says God has marked us and sealed us “IN” Christ. Christians should not have identity issues but sometimes we sure do. We belong to God the Father like our children belong to us as mom and dad. He has sealed and marked us as His own. There’s no disowning or disposing of us. We belong to God. We can walk away from God (man, would that be a foolish thing to do!) but God will never walk away from us. It’s like the old saying, “If you feel like you are far away from God – guess who moved?”

We don’t want to sin anymore but sometimes Satan tricks and traps us. It is so awesome that we know we can come back to God and He will forgive us as we confess our sins (I John 1:9). Like the song says,

“So come back to the light, to the love, you will find, it’s been here all along.

So come back to the start, and you’ll find in your heart, that you have always belonged…to Me”

Read Romans 8:1-17. Then listen to You Belong to Me by Grey Holliday. Listen very carefully to the lyrics. Then live today as an undeserving yet richly blessed child of the Father in heaven.

Romans 8:1-17

Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living in accord with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

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