[Monday's Devotional] - Chosen

Ask God to speak to you as you read these verses first quickly, then a second time slowly and carefully:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 1 Peter 1:1-2 [NIV]

A Ugandan pastor once said that the Bible can either be “quaffed like beer or sipped like wine”.  Sometimes it’s great to read big chunks of the Bible, it’s filling and satisfying.  It’s equally helpful, at times, just to take a couple of verses and sip, savour and meditate on them, exploring the complex flavour and the sheer joy of having those tastes on your palate. So this week we’re looking at just twelve verses of 1 Peter 1. We are sipping and savouring - I think you may find that it’s a rare vintage!

Peter writes to Christians, scattered over Turkey, due to persecution. He calls them exiles – people far away from home, who don’t belong. We too, live in a society and culture which rejects the claims of Jesus, and so by implication rejects us. Have you ever felt like you don’t belong? That you’re going against the flow?  You’re not alone. And there is good news.

Peter wants his readers to understand their plight through a particular lens. They are chosen.  He says this twice, using the words “God’s elect” and those “who have been chosen”.  God’s choosing is in many ways a mystery, but the purpose of God telling Israel in the Old Testament, Jesus telling his disciples in the Gospels, and the apostles telling Christians in their letters that they were chosen was because there is nothing more encouraging. It’s the wonder of every teenager finding out that the person they’ve fancied for ages likes them back.  It’s the joy of the person who gets a job at their dream firm that they thought was out of their reach. “YOU want ME!?”  Except this is infinitely more wonderful.  God tells us we are chosen because he wants us to be deeply encouraged.  You are chosen. He wanted you to live life as it was intended – in obedience to Jesus (v.2), and for that to happen Jesus died – you are made clean through his blood (v.2).

And so Peter can say, even in the trying circumstance of his readers, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” God’s free love to you, and his total peace to you, lavishly.  Maybe if today I knew that I was chosen then I might experience God’s free love and his peace.

Read the passage again.  Slowly. What else is God showing you through these words? Thank God that he chose you.

Olly Mears