Chosen

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.-- 1 Peter 2:9

I'll bet it pained Peter just a little bit to write these words. He was very slow in understanding that God's promises were also for the Gentile nations. It took a heavy dose of repentance on Peter's part to even have the strength to write these words. But because of the Spirit of Jesus his whole worldview was turned upside-down and would never return to upright position.

Perhaps our worldviews need to be shaken up a bit as well.

You may be tempted to think that the above Scripture reference excludes you for whatever reason. You may even have a hard time believing that the adjectives (chosen, royal, holy) cannot possibly describe you because you are treated otherwise.

By what standard do you exclude yourself? Here's a rule of thumb that I use:

Any standard that does not come from the mouth of God is to be ignored.

Not smart enough-- says who? Weigh too much-- did God ever say there's a correct weight? Teeth are crooked-- show me a dentist in the Bible. Nobody likes me-- how do you know? Ya know?!

Who came up with these unreasonable standards? God? I don't think so. Never measure your worth in the eyes of God using others as your measuring stick. God chose you. Period. Don't complicate God's choice with a bunch of stipulations that you cannot possibly live up to.

You are chosen!! Isn't it time to start getting used to it?