Variety: 1 Peter 2v9,10
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9–10
You are chosen. How does that sit with you? Take a moment to recognise the feelings this passage evokes in you and bring them before God. It’s hard to get your head around the mercy and wonder of being chosen by God. He’s always ready to hear how we feel about that, both the delight and the harder feelings it may evoke.
As we come to prayer today, we bring our experiences to God. Times when we’ve been welcomed or excluded, times when we’ve felt seen or overlooked, others when we’ve been recognised for who we are, and those times when we’ve been misunderstood. Those experiences have left us with a whole load of feelings, but they don’t define who we are – God does.
This passage reminds us that God himself has chosen us to be his people. To work out his plans in the world, to reflect his wonderful light into the places where we live, work, and play. To be people who live and work to declare his praise and to bring him glory. People who lead others in praise and who stand between God and others to show them the way to him.
When you think about what your day involves, what does it look like to live as a person called out of darkness in God’s ‘wonderful light’? How does that impact your work, your mental health, and your relationships?
Prayer
Father God, thank you that you have chosen me. Thank you that you have brought me into your wonderful light. Help me to remember my identity in you, and to let that identity shape all that I do. Amen.