Nougat 2

Have you ever been invisible? No, I’m not going cuckoo, but those who’ve been invisible got it on the first ask. Being invisible is about existing in a space where no one acknowledges you, and some clearly work to ensure that you know you’re not welcome.

IYKYK I tell you.

If you have been invisible before, or are trying to make yourself invisible, I pray you’ll find hope and encouragement in Today’s Holy Nougat

“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭29‬-‭30‬ ‭NLT‬‬

You Matter

Did you get that? As God’s Called, we have ‘right standing’ with God. Before going to the Greek, I share my own experience of this term. I am an ordained minister with the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Since my ordination in 2003 and the recognition of my ordination in 2004, I’ve traveled a lot in God’s name. And that is fine and acceptable. However, when I am traveling officially on UCJCI matters, or in being introduced on their behalf, others have been told that I’m a minister with good (right) standing in the denomination.

The denomination affirms my call and recognize me as one of theirs. Put simply, they ‘own’ me. I am not invisible to them, not by a long shot.

In Greek, the phrase ‘right standing’ is ‘dikaioó’, which transliterates as ‘justified’. Or, as my childhood self put it, ‘just as if I’d …’ . When we existed in our sinful nature, God yearned for us to come back to the knowledge that we are among the Called. But that chasm of sin allowed the enemy of our souls to tell us that we were invisible to God.

So Not True.

We matter to God.

To the extent that Christ died to bridge the chasm and restore us to life in Fullness with God. Christ makes us visible. And in His Righteousness, it’s Just As If I’d never sinned … we are Justified. By Jesus’s Death and by His resurrection. We are in right standing in Heavenly places, which means we matter in earthly spaces.

No longer concerned about being visible to God.

No longer bound by the sins of the past.

No longer feeling alone in the rough patches of life

Those who God Chooses, God Called

Those who God Called, God Justified

Therefore, we need not worry, for God’s got us. Amen

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May all we seek be found in Christ