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Why am I here? This verse helps answer this question for sure! How often do we feel like we are just taking up space? This verse reminds us that there is much more to who we are as Christians than simply someone who goes to church on Sundays and tries to be nice to people. Look at the strong language! Strong, royal and holy! Those are great adjectives. I don’t often think of myself in those terms, especially now as a woman in her mid-70’s!
As wonderful as it is to be embraced by GOD, there is a purpose for His redemption of His children. Yes, He chose us because He loved us, not because of any other reason. We weren’t chosen because of anything special about us in terms of accomplishments. There is nothing we did to earn that love. In fact, many of us were downright unloveable…and often still are.
As GOD’s children, we are also a royal priesthood. One thing a priest does is to stand between GOD and man and intercede. That is certainly something we do. WE stand in the gap between those we love in our everyday lives and GOD and intercede. Sometimes, we interpret GOD to others as well. We just need to be sure that the interpreting we do is true and Biblical. It must be in line with what GOD tells us about Himself in the Bible.
As a holy nation, we live out the gospel for the world to see. Israel was a nation where GOD was to be in charge of their lives in a unique way. They usually failed to obey His laws in the way they were supposed to and failed to show who GOD was to the world. That is why their history was so sad.
But Christians have been grafted into the promises made to Israel. They are not a nation in the sense that Israel was, but we are a nation that is sprinkled among all the nations of the world. We are the people of GOD!
What is our purpose?
We are here to proclaim by word and deed, the excellencies of our wonderful GOD! He is the GOD who called us out of darkness, into His marvelous light!
Chew on that for awhile. The wonders of our GOD…the same GOD who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. This light is not only physical light, but moral light. There is a purity and brilliance that is represented in our world by GOD’s people. At least one would hope that is true. That is the order of things. That is the way it is supposed to be. We are not to dabble in darkness.
We are to be part of the light in every way possible.
Action step: Think about what it means in your community to bring Christ there. This is the One who brought you out of darkness into His marvelous light! How do you bring marvelous light, including moral light to your community? What does that look like? How will it affect your voting? The priorities of voting issues? People you vote for?
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
But you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for his own possession,
that you may proclaim the excellencies of him
who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.I Peter 2:9-10 ESV
** For more information on how to become a child of GOD or a part of this holy nation, click here.
