{"id":2524,"date":"2014-08-22T17:06:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T17:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=2524"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:42:28","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:42:28","slug":"the-need-to-belong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/the-need-to-belong.html","title":{"rendered":"The need to belong"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WCC<\/a>
WCC Mission Team with Iglesia Adonai members<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God\u2019s very own family, citizens of God\u2019s country, and you belong<\/strong> in God\u2019s household with every other Christian” (Ephesians 2:19 TLB).<\/em><\/p>\n

Belonging\u00a0was formally recognized as one of the most profound\u00a0human needs by American psychologist, Abraham Maslow. In\u00a0a 1943 paper, he described a\u00a0“hierarchy of needs” that placed love and “belongingness” in its third tier of foundational importance. Only physiological and safety needs such as food, water, air and shelter were given greater importance.<\/p>\n

Maslow’s psychological theory recognized what others had claimed\u00a0for centuries, that humans have an innate need for belonging. Yet, this awareness of the need does not explain its origin. From where\u00a0does our need for belonging come?<\/p>\n

In the third century, Augustine of Hippo, said,\u00a0\u201cThou hast made us for Thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.\u201d Augustine believed that God made us with this desire for connection. He believed\u00a0we were made by God, for God.<\/p>\n

Three\u00a0centuries before Augustine, Jesus prayed that this divine connection would be restored, not just between man and God, but also between believers. Jesus prayed, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>that all of them may be one,\u00a0Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.\u00a0May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>I have given them the glory that you gave me,\u00a0that they may be one as we are one\u2014<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>I in them and you in me\u2014so that they may be brought to complete unity” (John 17:20-23 NIV).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This\u00a0oneness between God and man was\u00a0made possible through Jesus’\u00a0death and resurrection. The sin that separated us from God since Adam’s fall was\u00a0paid in full by Jesus. Faith in Christ’s work on the cross reconciles us to God and also gives us a message of reconciliation to others. It makes it possible for us to keep the great commandment to love God and to love others as ourselves. It fulfills our “belongingness” need to its very core.<\/p>\n

Christ’s prayer is being\u00a0answered. Those who believe in Him are being\u00a0adopted into God’s family.<\/p>\n

Yet,\u00a0the three enemies of this oneness remain\u00a0active. The flesh, the world and the devil, all continue to work to divide and isolate us from God and His family. Their voices are loud. They scream of hatred and racism. They point out our differences and the hypocrisies of others. They urge us to get even and never forgive. They push\u00a0us to pull away, to abandon, to divorce, and even to kill.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2121\"<\/a>
Gary & George<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the most powerful parts of Christ’s prayer is that “the world might\u00a0believe” because it would see\u00a0our unity. That the lonely and the orphaned would see the family of God, loving and accepting one another, and be reminded of the\u00a0primordial purpose of\u00a0being made for fellowship with God.<\/p>\n

\"Carlos<\/a>
Carlos & Gary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As many of our WCC members traveled on short term mission trips to\u00a0distant parts of the world this summer, we found more similarities than differences. The culture and color of the peoples in Uganda and Guatemala may have been\u00a0different than ours, but their hearts were the same. And when we worked and worshiped the Lord together, our sense of belonging to one another was overwhelming. We may have been with them for only a few days, but the deepness of our belongingness can only be explained by the miracle of Christ’s\u00a0prayer being fulfilled in us.<\/p>\n

Don’t listen to the voices that urge you to push away from the table. Get connected. Get right with God and others. Jesus is saving you a seat. You don’t have to be alone anymore. You belong in God’s family with all His other children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God\u2019s very own family, citizens of God\u2019s country, and you belong in God\u2019s household with every other Christian” (Ephesians 2:19 TLB). Belonging\u00a0was formally recognized as one of the most profound\u00a0human needs by American psychologist, Abraham Maslow. In\u00a0a 1943<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2091,2069,2311,2095,2070,2303,2052,2294],"location":[],"class_list":["post-2524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-belonging","tag-christ","tag-connecting","tag-gary-combs","tag-god","tag-guatemala","tag-jesus","tag-uganda"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5044,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2524\/revisions\/5044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2524"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=2524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}