There was a time in my life when I would have considered the following verse to be intimidating:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for His possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises
of the One who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9 HCSB)
I would look at it and think “me? a chosen person? a priest? holy? And I was called to do what?” At that point I would probably shake my head and conclude that I was woefully inadequate for the description given in 1 Peter 2:9.
But then I realized, I already AM all of those things. The verse says “you are” as in right now, present tense. I am chosen, I am a priest, I am holy and I am His people because God made me all of those things at the time of salvation. All of those were God’s free gifts to me without any effort on my part and despite of my past failures and mistakes. I am redeemed and that redemption is the process by which I am called out of spiritual darkness and into spiritual light and life. Amazingly enough my weakness and inadequacy is no obstacle to God’s selection of me or His ability to work in my life. Praise God for that!
And according to 1 Peter 2:9, why was I called? Why did God want me in particular? What is it that He wants me to do? He called me “so that I may proclaim the praises of the One who called me out of darkness” (I’m paraphrasing here but I hope you see where I’m coming from).
What exactly does it mean to “proclaim”? Well, I looked up the definition and here it is: Proclaim – declare something one considers important with due emphasis.
Do I consider it important that God has called me personally out of darkness? You bet I do! And I like the last part of that definition. I not only need to declare this important thing but I need to make sure I do it with “due emphasis”. How much emphasis is due God’s greatest gift to me as I declare it? I dare say, there is no such thing as too much emphasis on salvation.
I write because it is one way that God has called me to proclaim His praises and tell of the all the wonderful things that He has done for me. I teach Sunday School because I have been called to instruct others in the reading and studying of God’s Word as guided by the Holy Spirit. I sing in the choir because God has given me a voice that I can use to sing praises to Him in such a way that inspires the congregation to get ready to worship. All of these things and others I do to proclaim His praises.
So what about you? Are you a saved child of God? What are you doing to proclaim His praises? Whatever talent or ability that God has given you, use it to declare His work in your life with due emphasis. Proclaim His praises with the work of your hands. Proclaim His praises with the words in your mouth. Proclaim His praises with the direction of your life. This world needs all of us who are called out of darkness to shine our lights brightly for Jesus so that there is no mistaking its source. Proclaim His name!
You are right Matthew, it can be very hard to see ourselves as God sees us. As a bi-vocational Pastor it means that one week I may be preaching, or I might be listening to co-worker tell me about the struggle they are going through. I can get wrapped up in living out my “calling” as a Pastor and in the past that has been a distraction. I am in a place now where I am trying to learn to be available. to whatever Jesus may need me to do at the moment. – I am no there yet but I hope I am moving in that direction.