Day 21 - You’re in his team

Reading: John 10:22-42

Many unemployed youngsters in big cities are drawn into gangs. They find some comfort in ‘belonging’ and it is true that most of us need to experience the same comfort, that of being accepted. The problem is that all human belonging can be quite temporary. Our society today is somehow not experiencing long-term security. Our jobs, even our marriages, seem no longer to have the permanence that we recall from our childhood days. Footballers such as Stanley Matthews (Stoke City and Blackpool), Bobby Moore (West Ham) and Tom Finney (Preston) spent their whole playing lives linked to only one or two teams. Very rare to find such loyalty today when money is the driving force in sport. Here, in John’s Gospel, Jesus confirms the position of all his disciples. He not only offers total acceptance to his disciples, he assures them that this is for keeps. “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand.”

Jesus is reminding us that belonging to him is every bit as strong and permanent as the relationship between himself and his heavenly Father: “I and the Father are one.” Friendships can come and go, alliances between nations may be only for a season, marriages can be just as fragile – but we can never lose our parentage. We are born a child of our parents and that is one ‘belonging’ that lasts forever. Our birth certificates confirm who we are in this world. Thankfully our relationship with God needs no human registration. When we are born again, into his kingdom, our names are “written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Philippians 4:3). “Your names are written in heaven,” Jesus tells his followers (Luke 10:20).

If today is one of those days when you wish you had stayed in bed and you are experiencing some of the uncertainties of this life, hold on to this one sure fact – you are his.

Response

Heavenly Father, remind me constantly that I have been chosen, forgiven, redeemed, and it is forever.  Hallelujah! What a friend I have in Jesus.

Peter