Do you not know?

I'm working through week 2 of the Thin Within workbook #1. Each week there is a Bible verse to memorize. I have been so lax during most of my Christian walk about memorizing Scripture. I am really trying to focus on it now.

The verse for last week was from Isaiah 43:18-19
Forget the former things. Do not dwell in the past. See - I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

That's a good thing to remember! God is the great "I am". He is the present. He lives in the present and call me/us to do the same.

The verse from this week is from 1 Corinthians 6.19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God in your body.

(I tried to type those by memory, I'm still lacking a little in the second one).

This verse is a great truth. Once I gave my life to Christ (I gave - a completed action that I performed in the past), it is no longer my own (not that it really ever was). If I give something up, I can no longer lay claim to it.

I cannot claim my own rights or say that I deserve anything. I know what I do deserve and it is a gracious and merciful thing that God isn't giving it to me!

So, if I have a hard day at work do I have the right to eat with abandon? This life is no longer mine. I am not the Master of this house. I ought not think that I can just do anything with it. It is the Lord's temple. I am so limited in my puny human mind to think that I know the ultimate best for me. I know very little! Praise God that He always has my best at heart (His best being Himself)!

I was thinking about my 'rights' the other day. can I really lay claim to any right at all? I don't have a right to owning a house or a car; I don't have a right to a university education or a good job (or any job at all!); nor do I have the right to do as I please whenever I please. And yet, the world I live in tells me I have the right to these things and so many more!

I'm even told in the Declaration of Independence that my Creator has given certain unalienable rights: to live, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is nowhere in Bible where the Lord God of the universe gives me these rights (if I'm wrong, please correct me). I don't have the right to life, life is a gift from the Lord (Romans 5.12-21). I certainly don't have the right to freedom. My freedom is in Christ alone - a gift from Him when He freed me from my bondage to sin (Galatians 5.1). And how can I pursue joy or happiness apart from the Lord?

The only right that I count on is the right that was gifted to me by the Father:
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)

What a glorious gift and right that I can lay claim to! I am a child of God! I will let Him guide me in the details.