May 6

And they shall say, The LORD is my God. - Zechariah 13:9.

IN proportion as we feel our need of anything, and value it, are we anxious to make it our own. How many are there who think they would be happy if they were able to say, This office is mine, this title is mine, this house is mine, this land is mine, this inheritance is mine; but he only is truly blessed who can say, This God is mine. There is a foundation for this appropriation. Indeed there is nothing else that a Christian has which is really his own. Our wealth, if we have it, or children, or time, are not our own; our souls are not our own; but a believer may say, “God, even our own God, shall bless us;” and as he is really our own, so is he entirely and eternally our own. “This ‘God is our God for ever and ever.”

This is the grand thing when we address God, especially when we are dealing with God in trouble and distress. Then we may plead with him on the ground of our interest in him. There are times when we may be afraid to adopt this language of appropriation, as if it did not belong to us; but there are two senses in which the most timid Christian is able to use this language.

First, We may use it as the language of hope. This hope may have to war daily with doubts and fears, and yet we cannot give it up. It may not at present bring us full relief, but then it ascends to the throne of grace, it brings us to the foot of the cross. This hope is like laying hold of a branch when sinking in deep waters; it is just enough to keep the head above water, to preserve us till some more effectual aid be brought to extricate us.

There is also another sense in which the most fearful of God’s children can adopt this language. We can say he is our God by preference and submission. “Lord, I am thine, save me;” if thou refuse to acknowledge the relation (and I deserve to be refused as a friend), O “make me as one of thy hired servants;” “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Thus it is we may say, “The Lord is my portion, therefore will I hope in him.”

God is ours, not only by donation on his side, but by dedication on our side. There is an inseparable connection between these two. If we have been enabled to give up ourselves to God, we may be assured that God has given himself to us. If we love God, and choose him for our portion, we may be assured he has loved us and chosen us to be his peculiar treasure, for we love him because he first loved us.

“When I can say my God is mine,

When I can feel his glories shine,

I tread the world beneath my feet,

And all that earth calls good or great.”