Who or Whose?

Tuesday 9/29/2015 4:53 AM

When faced with uncertainty or with difficulty some people panic and worry about the future. In their minds they play out every possible scenario and then try to formulate their plan to deal with the consequences. When things become too overwhelming people will sometimes say they need to take time to find themselves, to discover who they are deep inside, to determine their priorities and how best to live out their priorities in the given circumstances.

My former pastor would always encourage our congregation to remember our identity, to remember not who we are but whose we are. He liked to quote one of our church’s confessions, the Heidelberg Catechism, Question and Answer 1. “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”

Today I read a similar quote by Rueben P. Job. “To remember who creates us and recreates, who calls us again and again, who knows us completely, and who loves us unconditionally is to be prepared, as Jesus was, for all that is to come. We need have no fear of today or anxiety about tomorrow. We belong to God who claims us as beloved children and holds us close in the embrace of strength and love. Listen and remember today that God calls your name, and be transformed and sustained in all that awaits you.”

It is easy to become discouraged in our modern society. News reports on television are filled with fear mongering. Breaking news bombards us with a barrage or stories of child abductions, random acts of violence, worldwide terror, threats to our financial security, predatory corporations robbing us of hard-earned money and threatening our environment, to mention a few. But these stories and threats pale when I realize that the God who created and maintains the universe has promised to hold me close and to walk with me through whatever circumstances arise. I pray that I will have the faith to trust in that loving God without reservation.