1 Peter 2:9 – 10 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous 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.”
One of our friends was describing how she came to Christ. She told us that she felt as if she was under a huge pile of garbage and that there was only a small opening that shed light into her darkness. When one Christian man she knew came into the room, it was as if a small bright light began to shine into her darkness. When that man’s wife joined him, the light suddenly became far brighter. And the night our friend accepted Jesus as her Savior, her prayer was simple: “God, let me be like those people!”
In Peter’s day, everybody knew about priests. There were the Jewish priests who had hereditary offices but who were expected to behave according to carefully laid – down rituals. The priesthood conferred social status and preferential treatment on the priests as well as their family members. No matter how wealthy someone might be, he or she could never simply decide to become a priest; it was a matter of lineage. Priests were considered to be a little closer to God than everybody else.
Now Peter is really shaking things up! To the early Christians, many of whom were slaves or women with no social status whatsoever, or poor working men, Peter is saying, “You! You are a prince! You are a princess! And not only that, but God has specially chosen you for Himself. You have been thinking you were nothing, but God sees you as pure and holy and worthy! God has called you out of the darkness of your sin and your shame to tell everybody about Him! Until now, you were not receiving any mercy, but now God has favored you with His everlasting mercy and grace!”
Ever since Peter wrote these verses, they have comforted and inspired believers. In lands where caste systems kept people isolated and oppressed, these verses have brought hope. To those trapped in dead – end jobs, to those at the bottom of the financial heap, to those trapped in sins of pornography, of gambling, of alcohol, of drugs, of any form of addition – to all of us, in fact, these verses are a call of hope! God is calling us out of the darkness that has wrapped its bonds around our hearts into His marvelous Light!
The one thing we all possess is free will. We can choose to live in darkness or to head for the light. One of the most useful prayers I have ever learned is one that Brother Andrew, the famous smuggler of Bibles into Eastern Europe, quoted. “Lord, I am giving you permission to change my heart and my mind. I am willing to be made willing to accept you.”
Now, that seems like such a poor kind of prayer, but it is actually spiritual dynamite! Why? Because when you tell God that you are willing to be made willing to follow Him, He changes your heart and your mind. Proverbs 21:1 says that “The King’s heart is as a water course in the hand of the Lord, and He turns it where He wills.” If God can turn the hearts of kings, don’t you think that he can also turn your heart?
We were just watching a TV program about a morbidly obese lady who had to lose weight or die. The first decision she had to make was to comply with the diet prescribed by her doctor. Once this lady was willing to follow that diet, the weight began to come off. That lady was saving her life, one decision at a time.
God has promised us an incredible future! We have been called out of darkness into God’s full and complete light, a light so brilliant that it is blinding. What will you do with this call? Will you say “yes” and go forward, or will you shrink back into darkness? Today you are deciding for eternity.
PRAYER: Father God, we want to believe you. We want to follow you. But we feel trapped in our circumstances. Lord, we are willing to be made willing. Change our hearts. Change our minds. Help us come out of the darkness and into the Light of your great Mercy. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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