September 19, 2025 Devo

Sometimes there are words that I’ve read in passages over and over, and then one day they just jump off the page at me. Today was one of those days. I was reading our verse above, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. “His.” God made us. He is our God, and we are His People. He is our Good Shepherd, and we are a part of His Flock. We BELONG to Him!
Do you get the significance of this? How much of our lives do we spend trying to “belong?” We want to feel connected somewhere. We want to feel as if we are a part of something. We want a place where we are “known,” a group that we can be a part of. We will often alter ourselves trying to fit in. Whether at work, at school, or at the gym, we try to talk like the group we want to belong to. We try to dress like them, act like them, and make them think we share the same values, even when we do not. All because we want to fit in. But when we finally find acceptance with a group, there always seems to be something missing. And there is. It’s because we weren’t made to be “theirs.” We’re “His.”
God is your missing puzzle piece, not some Mr. or Miss Right. God is the source of your identity, not some group, gang, or club. Part of the reason some of us feel as if we never quite fit in anywhere is that God has made us incredibly unique. We keep looking for someone or some group that is like us that we can blend in with. But God didn’t create you to blend in. He created you to stand out! He created you with the same essence of “specialness” that exists in Him. Picasso’s paintings don’t look anything like other people’s paintings, but not many would argue whether or not they are “masterpieces.” And YOU are a masterpiece, too.
Listen very carefully to what I’m saying to you today. You BELONG. I know you feel odd and sometimes strangely out of place. But you’re not. Some of you are craving acceptance and dying to be a part of something, and you don’t realize that you already are. You are HIS. God made you. You are beautiful, unique, gifted, and precious. You are accepted as you are, adored as you are, and loved…just as you are. So stop trying to alter everything so wonderfully unique about yourself to belong to a bunch of people who all want to look the same. Be YOU. Because you, my child, are HIS! That’s God’s Word for you today.