There is something in us that makes us want to look really good on the outside. We often see ourselves in relation to others. We want ‘one-up’ in rank or position. Call it status. A neighbor, friend or relative have a nice car, a beautiful home, and educated children. You want to do ‘one-up’ on them by getting a nicer car, a nicer home, and more educated children. Once we reach a certain level, we not only want to maintain it, but reach even a higher level. Soon everyone who is physically able is working outside the home.
Relationships are often sacrificed to this end! You might agree. Happiness is gone; so is the peace. You call it home but, really, it’s just a house. Communication breaks down between husband and wife; between parents and children. You feel like a slave – all for the sake of status, trying to out-do your friend across the street. Jealousy, coveting, and anger dominate. Is this really ‘status?’
In the beginning, when God made us, He made us to live in a right relationship with Him. This was status – to be His children, sons and daughters of the living King in this world. But we forfeited our status by breaking our relationship with Him.
Now, in its place, we try to find status in ourselves, in the things we own, and in the houses we live in. We have given up our status in God and think we can build our own status. But we come up with cheap imitations. We find it in things, in education, in rank and position; not in relationships. We try to impress others with it. But why? If we felt comfortable with our status, why try to impress others?
Something is missing. We have become slaves. This is because we have lost our rank, our position of being sons and daughters of God.
Is there a way out of this awful slavery? The answer is found in the Lord Jesus. Through faith in Him, God restores our relationship with Him, so that we once again have the status of being sons and daughters of God. This status is the gift of His grace to all who believe in Christ. There is no higher status in all the world than this!
In Christ, God redeems you from slavery. He can make your house into a home again, a home where relationships may thrive!
