“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 [NIV]
Most of us seek acceptance, we seek it from our parents, partners, friends, work colleagues, team mates. Our desire to be accepted can influence the possessions we own, what we wear, how we behave towards others, and even the way we speak.
We like the feeling of acceptance, we love to know that someone has chosen and accepted us. Remember choosing teams for football, how you felt when they got down to the last two or three players and you still hadn’t been chosen?
Eugene Petersen paraphrases "But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted."
1 Peter 2: 9-10 [The Message]
Even if you can’t play football - as imperfect as you are, God has chosen you. If we can grasp that we are accepted, loved, wanted by God, so much so that God took all our sin upon himself, we have to respond, we cannot live unchanged lives.
Father, thank you for you acceptance of us.
Guy Mowbray
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