You are not your own...
...for you have been bought with a price...
therefore glorify God in your body.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19b-20
Journey in Christ has been using a small booklet to minister powerful biblical truths to people. Two female staff members will be sharing this booklet with 6 female employees at a heavy equipment manufacturing plant on May 30, as part of a discipleship training ministry. The booklet is entitled Faithful Forever by a friend and mentor of this ministry, the late Anabel Gillham.
A simple, yet powerful and foundational, truth in Anabel's booklet is reverberating through my heart and mind as it transforms my life. I pray the reverberating never ends. And I pray you, too, will be profoundly touched by the following excerpts from the booklet.
JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE MINE
by Anabel Gillham
God used a very special person in my life to show me how wrong I was to believe I could perform to merit His love. Mason was our second son -- profoundly retarded -- and it was through my deep love for Mason that God revealed the depths of His love for me.
(One day) I stopped washing dishes and got down on my knees in front of Mace. I took his dirty little-boy hands in mine and tried so desperately to reach him: Mason, I love you. I love you. If only you could understand how much I love you.
He just stared. He couldn't understand. I stood up and started washing the dishes again, but that didn't last long. This sense of urgency -- almost a panic -- came over me, and once more I dried my hands and knelt in front of my precious little boy: My dear Mason, if you could say to me, "I love you mother." I need that, Mace.
Nothing.
I stood up to the sink again. More dishes, more washing, more crying. Thoughts foreign to my way of thinking began filtering into my conscious awareness. I believe God spoke to me that day, and this is what He said:
Anabel, you don't look at your son and turn away in disgust because he's sitting there with saliva drooling out of his mouth. You don't shake your head, repulsed because he has dinner all over his shirt or because he's sitting in a dirty, smelly diaper when he ought to be able to take care of himself.
Anabel, you don't reject Mason because all the dreams you had for him have been destroyed. You don't reject him because he doesn't perform for you.
You love him, Anabel, just because he is yours.
Mason doesn't willfully reject your love, but you willfully reject Mine. I love you, Anabel, not because you're neat or attractive, not because you do things well, not because you perform for Me, but...
...just because you're Mine.
CLOSING
Have you ever told God your Father good night as you lay down at night? By faith, we can intentionally know His presence and His embrace. I am growing to hear His assuring voice in my heart, "Good night son." I know He never slumbers and He watches over me...
...just because I belong to Him.
You see, I am not my own. He bought me with a price. The price of His dear Son. Now I, too, am a dear son.
Resting in Him,
| 
Just Because You're Mine 
