Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “STRANGERS in the World”
Week 6 of 7: “Strangers…Am I the only one?”
Full Sunday message, CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
5 IDENTITIES God wants you to embrace!
1 Peter 2:9 “…you are a…people belonging to God…”
About 40 years ago, I had to have it. I saved up money from my newspaper route for a few months. I watched the ads to see what the best price was. In some ways I don’t remember why I wanted it so much, but when I had that Sony dual cassette, mega bass, boom box in my possession, it was a great day. The boom box I had always wanted belonged to me. (I still have it by the way – if anyone ever needs to play a cassette!)
In our culture we don’t like to think of ourselves as people “belonging” to someone else. We value our independence and don’t want someone “owning” us and able to force our decisions, our actions, our schedules etc. To understand this identity God gives us, think of your most treasured possession and how proud you are that it belongs to you. Think how lovingly you treasure the children in your family and that they belong to/are connected to you. Now magnify this truth about you…YOU BELONG to GOD!
The phrase in the original literally reads, “a people for a possession”…here’s what God did for you so that you would belong to him:
- He desires you.
God’s heart is for YOU to be part of his family. “God so LOVED the world…” (John 3:16)
- He paid the price for you.
The price was not just a few dollars, it was the price of his Son’s body and blood. Peter wrote of it earlier, ‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
- He does not want to lose you.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 2:9)
- He is proud to associate with you.
And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised. (Deuteronomy 26:18-19)
Just like when you invest in purchasing something to be your own, you desire it to accomplish the purpose for which you purchased it. God purchased us for a purpose…a loving and privileged purpose. What is it? “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). God has us part of his family to simply share the amazing work that he has done in our life to bring us into his wonderful light…who knows, your praises may be the tool God uses to bring another soul into his wonderful light!
Apply: What happens as you embrace the identity that you “belong to God”? What opportunities do you have today to “declare the praises” of God in your words and in your work?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for finding me important enough to spend the blood of your son to purchase me from a life of sin to belong to you and enjoy a life of declaring your praises to you and to others! AMEN.