Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the nations of the earth; Exodus 19:5
Have you sensed in yourself a need to feel treasured, to feel special and yet that need seems to remain unfulfilled? If you have, you are not alone. God has built into each of his creation, mankind that is, the need for intimacy. He has done this because we are not meant to “do life” alone. We are made for inter-dependency, for intimacy. Family, friendships, and marriage can provide that for us but they are not the only way. Indeed they are not even the best way that we can experience that feeling of being special to someone.
Pursuing a relationship with God, our heavenly father is the ultimate way of experiencing that feeling of being special and treasured. This is the place where our heart can be truly satisfied and nurtured, but there is a price to pay. In any relationship, whether with family, friend, or marriage partner there is always a price to pay in order to have a good relationship. We need first of all to accept each other’s differences, learn to love in spite of them, be patient with each other, and learn to give as well as take; we also need to learn to understand how each other thinks. These are just a few of the many demands for building a good relationship.
God told his people, Israel, that for them to be his special treasure they needed to keep covenant with him – to stay faithful to his commands. To our modern way of thinking this seems rather stringent and dictatorial but this is where we need to understand the heart of God our father, and the difference between the old and new covenants. Under the old covenant there were many rules and regulations. In Deuteronomy 28 we see a list of “Do this and all will be well” and “Do that and it won’t go well for you”. Just like a good parent God set boundaries for his people. He also gave them the 10 Commandments, but he knew they would be unable to keep them. Was he setting them up for failure? No! He was trying to show them that they needed him to help them, that interdependency with him was the way to success.
Out of his love for us he gave us the answer to the problem – Jesus, who came to free us from the slavery to our sinful nature so that we could keep covenant with him. Through relationship with him we are given grace and strength to live the kind of life that will result in us feeling special and treasured. It does require a working relationship with God the father through the indwelling Holy Spirit. As we learn to relate to Jesus in similar ways to how we would relate to a precious friend or spouse, we will reap the benefits of being his own special treasure.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to develop a new level of intimacy with you that will fulfil my need to feel special to someone. Amen
Have you sensed in yourself a need to feel treasured, to feel special and yet that need seems to remain unfulfilled? If you have, you are not alone. God has built into each of his creation, mankind that is, the need for intimacy. He has done this because we are not meant to “do life” alone. We are made for inter-dependency, for intimacy. Family, friendships, and marriage can provide that for us but they are not the only way. Indeed they are not even the best way that we can experience that feeling of being special to someone.
Pursuing a relationship with God, our heavenly father is the ultimate way of experiencing that feeling of being special and treasured. This is the place where our heart can be truly satisfied and nurtured, but there is a price to pay. In any relationship, whether with family, friend, or marriage partner there is always a price to pay in order to have a good relationship. We need first of all to accept each other’s differences, learn to love in spite of them, be patient with each other, and learn to give as well as take; we also need to learn to understand how each other thinks. These are just a few of the many demands for building a good relationship.
God told his people, Israel, that for them to be his special treasure they needed to keep covenant with him – to stay faithful to his commands. To our modern way of thinking this seems rather stringent and dictatorial but this is where we need to understand the heart of God our father, and the difference between the old and new covenants. Under the old covenant there were many rules and regulations. In Deuteronomy 28 we see a list of “Do this and all will be well” and “Do that and it won’t go well for you”. Just like a good parent God set boundaries for his people. He also gave them the 10 Commandments, but he knew they would be unable to keep them. Was he setting them up for failure? No! He was trying to show them that they needed him to help them, that interdependency with him was the way to success.
Out of his love for us he gave us the answer to the problem – Jesus, who came to free us from the slavery to our sinful nature so that we could keep covenant with him. Through relationship with him we are given grace and strength to live the kind of life that will result in us feeling special and treasured. It does require a working relationship with God the father through the indwelling Holy Spirit. As we learn to relate to Jesus in similar ways to how we would relate to a precious friend or spouse, we will reap the benefits of being his own special treasure.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to develop a new level of intimacy with you that will fulfil my need to feel special to someone. Amen
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