Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have summoned you by name.
You are mine.
Isaiah 43.1.
When you hear the word command, what do you feel?
For a lot of us, it sounds like pressure.
Another thing to get right, another standard to live up to,
and perhaps another opportunity for us to fall short.
But what if God's commands aren't about creating pressure
to remind us who we are not?
What if they are invitations to remind us
who we are in him?
Isaiah 43.1 is not a to-do list.
It's an identity statement.
Do not be afraid.
Why?
It's not your name.
It's not who you are, because I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name.
You are mine.
God doesn't command you to toil,
trying to do it all by the sweat of your own brow.
He invites you to trust, to trust him.
You are redeemed.
You are called by name.
You are his.
That's not pressure, and that's not a pep talk
to get you to try harder today.
It's an invitation to believe
and live from what's already true about you.