Scripture

Romans 9:25-28 (The Message)

Hosea put it well:

I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies; I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved. In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!” they’re calling you “God’s living children.”

Isaiah maintained the same emphasis:

If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered and the sum labeled “chosen of God,” they’d be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection.

God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name.

Arithmetic is not his focus.

Consider

God’s love for you is personal. If you’ve been rejected and disowned by someone who was supposed to love and care for you, then this passage is God’s Word for you.

Many of us have been lied to about our worth, told that we are faulty, damaged, unlovable. We’ve been shamed and cursed and abused, and those stinging arrows still lodge in our souls.

The God who created us, however, the One who knew our names from the beginning of time, has called us to belong to him. He calls us his children, and to him we are beloved, the apple of his eye, and a sweet aroma. He paid the highest price to lift us above our hurtful human relationships and set our feet on the path that leads home to him. He sent Jesus to show us and the Spirit to teach us how to remove the stinging arrows and discover the beautiful truth about who he created us to be.

Pray

FATHER, I am wounded. Harsh words, contemptuous actions, violations of different sorts have pierced me deeply, and I can’t escape them. Their poison seeps into my life, tainting my happiness and robbing me of peace. Help me, Lord, to remove the arrows and the lies that shame and cripple me. Teach me how to be the person you created me to be and give me faith to trust in your love for me. Shield me, I pray, from those who wish me harm.

Reflect

Deuteronomy 32:10; 2 Corinthians 2:15; Ephesians 2:19

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How would you name the arrows that cause you pain?