Chosen and "Mercied"

But you are a chosen people… 1 Peter 2:9

 

Chosen and “Mercied”

 

            Once again, yesterday, a woman sat in my living room crying out: “I want to know who God has uniquely created me to be!” How often I hear this heart’s cry. We know in our heads that we are created in God’s image and created by God for a purpose. But this woman was 67 years of age and still couldn’t define her unique place in the kingdom. Her head knew what she ought to believe but her heart needed to hear that she was special to God in some way.

            These verses in 1 Peter 2:9–12 can be read over so quickly and this joyous truth missed: we have been chosen by the Living God to be in relationship with Him and, through the relationship, manifest God to an orphan world.

            Feeling chosen enables us to work tirelessly for the kingdom. We feel ourselves to be an essential part of God’s action in the world. If I don’t manifest God in my neighborhood, who will? If I don’t use my spiritual gifts, who will miss seeing God? Being chosen for a specific purpose gives my life meaning and structure. I know how to live.

            Being chosen also means we’ve been mercied. “…but now you have received mercy.” (v. 10) Mercy is the means of our relating to God. God has shown mercy to us and we are transformed into persons who shower mercy on others.

 

—Kathy Bence

 

Shower mercy on someone today out of gratitude.