A Godly People

March 29, 2023 | Tori Cook JE ‘26

image description: lightning in field

I have always loved Jeremiah 32:38 where the Lord declares to the Israelites, “They will be my people, and I will be their God.” This seems easy enough: God will make us a part of His people and He will be our God. Sounds great to me. But as I’ve reflected on the verse this Lenten season, I’ve become overwhelmed by the staggering responsibility this verse allocates to the Christian believer. What exactly makes someone a part of God’s people? Is it as straightforward as I’ve always thought? 

The verse which follows expresses a key attribute belonging to members of God’s chosen community. The Lord states that he will give his people “singleness of heart and action,” meaning that our actions and desires ought to be unified in working for the Lord’s purposes (Jer. 32:39). Oof–I most definitely fail daily in this regard. This verse shattered my shallow illusions of passive participation qualifying me as a member of God’s people. The verse stresses both the importance of our choices and our will in desiring to follow Him. To have one heart and one mind as a Christian people seems to mean having our will fully in line with God’s will– perfectly desiring what He desires. Herein lies the difficulty. Changing our actions is far easier than changing our wills and desires. Yet, if we desire to be a part of God’s ‘people’, we must undergo this process to allow for “singleness of heart and action.” How do we do this? 

Perhaps God gives us the means in the same verse that he states the conclusion. Maybe we become His people by making Him our God. We certainly can’t be His people if we don’t acknowledge ourselves to belong to Him, but to what extent in our daily lives do we claim Him as our own? Lent is a wonderful time to ask ourselves this question. 

I think there are three nonnegotiable things we must do to claim the God of the Bible as our God. One is the dedicated reading of the Bible. We can’t profess a God whose teachings we do not know. The second is intentional prayer. Prayer, as Jesus taught in Matthew 6, is how we show our willingness to communicate with God and accept His help and guidance in our lives. We cannot profess a God with whom we do not deign to communicate. The third is service–not meaning large acts but rather any act which is motivated by sincere care for God’s children. We cannot claim a God whose great commandment, charity, we neglect. These three actions can provide a basis for further reflection on how to live as a part of God’s people.

I know just how overwhelming it is to see how short we fall everyday in trying to live as a part of God’s people. Yet, it is for this reason that Lent is a blessed season as it provides a set time to follow Christ’s example and reorient ourselves towards God. As we recognize how far we have strayed from God and how much we need Him in the day to day, that very realization is the first step towards living as a part of God’s ‘people’.

This piece is a part of a series for Lent 2023. Read more at https://www.yalelogos.com/lent2023