July 27, 2017

“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

The Lord cannot be more clear about how He looks at you. Every follower of Jesus comes from a place of “nothing”. It doesn’t matter how much you have or what you have achieved. Jesus met you at the hole in your heart that nothing can fill but Himself. You can have so much and yet feel the deepest poverty in your spirit. Likewise you can have so little and feel forgotten and worth even less. God’s economy is unlike anything in this world. In His world where it really counts you are His chosen. You can sort out the particulars when you get home. If that’s true, your everyday life should reflect it. It doesn’t make you proud or feeling above anyone. The opposite is closer to Christ’s kingdom. Your life is to be marked with a carefree generosity. There is to be a gracious availability about your life that stands out in this self-choosing, self-protecting, self-promoting world. Because of Jesus, you are forever different. Everyday is a night-and-day moment for you to live out of His life. You’re being watched you know? You are if Jesus is your life. Because no one living without Christ lives free and forgiven. It doesn’t how much or how little they possess. The titles beside their names are not true definitions of who they really are. When you live this way .. nothing to something .. rejected to accepted .. others will be drawn into God’s story. It’s what they long for. Just like you did. Beware the world’s siren song of lifeless love and heart-breaking choices that birth emptiness. You’re His chosen .. free and forgiven .. God’s instrument for others to see what real grace can do. Yep .. The Lord’s pretty clear about who you are. It only takes a moment …