Verse of the week

'God's elect, strangers in the world' 1 Peter 1:1

Every now and then (presumably when they've run out of proper news) newspapers report surveys which show that teenagers in 'this day and age' are searching for an identity. We're often told that adolescence is a time when people seek to work out who they are and where they fit into things.

Well, if you're a Christian (however old you are), here's your identity.

You are one of God's elect. You are chosen by God, loved by God, and God sent his Son to die for you. You belong to God, and are part of his family. Since God gave his own Son for you, there's nothing he won't do for you. You are saved, and will spend eternity with God in his recreated perfect world.

I spent most of my teenage years dressing stupidly, acting stupidly, and speaking stupidly, trying to find an identity I was happy with, that made me feel secure. Read the previous paragraph again - is that not the greatest identity anyone can have? I wish I'd known when I was younger that I could be part of God's elect. What a wonderful encouragement to know that's our identity in God's sight!

But if you're a Christian, you are also a stranger in the world. A foreigner. Someone who doesn't quite fit in, will never really belong. Because my Dad's German, I support Germany at football, and whenever World Cup time comes around I always feel a bit left out of things. Well that is the experience of God's elect in a fallen, sinful, godless world. Perhaps you expect that even though you're a Christian you'll always fit in with your schoolfriends? Perhaps you feel that even though you're a Christian life in this world should be easy? Perhaps you're surprised when things your friends or family say or do make you feel awkward because you're a Christian?

But you won't fit in all the time, it won't be easy all the time, you will feel awkward some of the time; because you're a stranger in this world. You are loved by God, you belong to God; and so you won't be loved by the world because you don't belong to the world.

God's chosen ones, strangers in the world; that's the identity of the Christian, and it's a wonderful one; and it certainly beats being the world's chosen ones, and strangers to God.