What does it mean to be chosen?

But you are a chosen people, set aside to be a royal order of priests, a holy nation, God’s own; so that you may proclaim the wondrous acts of the One who called you out of inky darkness into shimmering 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 it. (I Peter 2:9-10)

Chosen - selected from several, sometimes for the uniqueness of the object, but always because the one choosing wants to make that which is chosen their own. We are the object of his desire - selected specifically because there is something in each of us which he uniquely desires and has "use for" in his Kingdom. The specific purpose God has in mind for you may differ from what he has in mind for me, but as long as we understand clearly that he has selected us BECAUSE he has a purpose for each of, then we are on the same path! Our purpose? One purpose that is NOT unique to each of us is that of loving him with all our hearts, souls, and minds. All of us are called to fulfill this purpose. None of us is unique in that calling. We also have a common purpose of proclaiming the wondrous acts of the One who called us out of INKY darkness into SHIMMERING light. 

I don't think there is a better illustration of sin's "darkness" - for the INKY darkness of sin's hold is indeed a stain from which we cannot apply any amount of detergent or scrubbing action to successfully remove. Yet, somehow by the tremendous power of Christ's blood applied to that INKY dark stain of sin in our lives, we are made WHITE as snow! Shimmering light - that is what describes our position in Christ Jesus - no longer bound up in the INKY darkness of sin's hold. We are to proclaim the transformation which has occurred - to be living testimonials of his mercy and grace! This is our common calling - and it is this purpose which we are called to fulfill with each breath we take. We each have other unique traits - things like our ability to lead, organize, sing, play an instrument, welcome people, or even run a sound system. These seem very practical and a little "not so spiritual" but remember even these talents are "spiritual" when yielded to his hand for his use and purpose within his Kingdom work!

We are "set aside" to be a royal order of priests - a holy nation, God's own. We may not feel very valuable on occasion. Chosen - selected for a specific purpose; set aside - called out so we could fulfill the purpose of being his OWN. Even if we don't feel like we "belong" anywhere on this earth, we BELONG in his Kingdom. Do you know what it means to NOT be chosen? It means to be overlooked, but the problem with how many of us do the choosing is that we don't look deep enough. God does more than take a cursory look our direction - he looks deep into the possibilities in each of us. Then he goes beyond the surface glance, searching the depths of our hearts until he sees just what he wants and lifts us into his arms and into his presence. So, the next time you want to be down on yourself and think you don't fulfill any particular purpose in this life - think again! You are chosen! You are a holy people! You are a child of the King! You are taken from INKY darkness into SHIMMERING light! You are his chosen one! Just sayin!

We all need a purpose

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (Philippians 4:6-7)

What is your purpose in life? If you are like me, you spent quite a bit of time in your youth and young adult life just trying to figure that one out. Some of you may not even have a clue yet! It is only after we understand our purpose in Jesus that we can begin to live a meaningful life. Our main purpose in life is to follow Christ with our whole hearts - allowing him to be the central part of our lives. All the other 'stuff' we pursue as some form of 'purpose' in our lives really is an outflow of his grace in our lives.

As this chapter unfolds, we find the reminder: "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will GUARD your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. How does this peace actually help us to walk within the purpose God has for us? When we learn to rejoice in our salvation and actually realize God is always present with us wherever we go and whatever we do, we begin to find peace with what it is we come to realize as our 'purpose' in life. 

As we are reminded, we are to worry less and pray more. I think we spend a whole lot of time 'worrying' our way toward a 'purpose' and far less time than we should 'praying' with purpose. Did you catch that? We spend time 'pursuing' purpose, while God asks us to take time to live within our purpose, communing with him. As Paul goes on within this chapter, he wants us to know all that worrying over things far outside of our control is really serving one purpose - to keep us away from fulfilling God's purpose within our lives. Instead, we are to take those things to God in prayer - worry over nothing, pray about everything (4:6-7)

Maybe we would 'feel' a bit more 'in tune' with God's purpose for our lives if we learned to turn our thoughts toward the things he actually wants us to be thinking about. As we begin to meditate on good and true thoughts (4:8), focusing on godly examples and our own behavior (4:9), we begin to see this is not really about our 'self-man'. It is about him - this daily walk becomes a thing in which we find great contentment and fulfillment. If we are not fulfilled in our daily walk, it could just be a result of us not drawing near to him. Just sayin!