A Heart Spoken For
ROMANS 9: 1-224
(July 25)
Covered by your divine
Child of the risen Lord
To hear you say "This one's mine"
My heart is spoken for
"Spoken For" is a song by MercyMe that I absolutely love! There is something so sweet and special about knowing that God looks at me ... he looks at you ... and he says, "This one's mine."
Have you ever done that with your own child? I know I have. For years, I was known as "Cody's mom". Everywhere I went, that was how I was recognized. My son was a solid athlete and all-around cool dude, and it was an honor to be known as his mom.
Even after he had long left his hometown for bigger things... I was still "Cody's mom". This went on for years, until one day I walked into 7-11 and someone said, "Hey, aren't you Jovanney's mom?" I just laughed and said, "Yes, I am." Then I went home, called the older boy, and told him he had been ousted by his little brother!
The funny thing about this is that Cody is my oldest biological child. There were four of those little darlings in my life and I thought I was finished with all that. But God had other plans and brought me three little siblings to adopt. Jovanney is the middle one of those three.
So, you see, I was recognized as my biological son's mom, and as my adopted son's mom. There was no difference, no partiality based on who the child was or where he had come from. I am just a mama, and they are both my sons. And my heart is spoken for by both of them.
Paul is trying to tell us that God is not a God of partiality. Even though the people of Israel were his chosen people, they still turned away from him time and time again. But he loved them anyways and he always had a plan for their lives.
God had promised Abraham that his descendants would cover the earth. Did that mean those born to him? Not exclusively. Abraham's descendants weren't necessarily children of God. It was the children of the promise God made to Abraham that were considered to be his children. (You remember that promise ... that Sarah would have a son, even though they were both getting WAAAAY up there in age.) So it was through Isaac that these descendants became children of Abraham.
Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau (Isaac's sons with Rebekah). God chose Jacob to continue the family line because he knew Jacob's heart was for God. Even though Esau was technically older. This didn't keep Esau from knowing and loving God. It just meant that God chose it to be this way for his own purpose.
God is always working for our good and his purpose, even when we don't understand his reasons.
If you remember from OT reading, God blessed Israel greatly. But even after all those blessings, they still failed. They rejected Jesus and crucified him. Even Paul, in his early days, was guilty of condemning the Christians.
Does this failure of Israel mean that God failed? NO WAY! It just shows us that God is faithful no matter what people do with his work. This shows us that salvation is God's work, not man's. Only God could offer this eternal life to people who had failed him so much.
It is that same God that offers us eternal life, even though we fail him daily in ways big and small. It doesn't matter whose child we are, what the order of our birth is, if we are biological children or adopted. None of us are worth more than the other. The Creator has created each of us for his great purpose. No matter who we are or where we come from, our hearts are spoken for by the one true God.