"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 CSB

Good Morning Arisers!

I so look forward to these Saturday morning devotions with all of you. I love what God is doing within our community—how He is growing us and maturing us in His Word and in fellowship with one another. The more I learn about who God says He is in His Word and who He says I am in His Word, the more I experience the freedom that He died to give me. Don't you, too?

1 Peter 2:9 is one of my favorite verses that speaks to the character of God and our identity in Him.

Friends, let me make something abundantly clear to you this morning. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, if you have trusted in Him for your salvation, if you have confessed your sins and recognized that your forgiveness has freely come through the blood-stained cross of Christ—then 1 Peter 2:9 is your life verse. You may have other verses that you cling to and claim as your life verse, and that is great! But what I'm saying is that the words of this one verse define your salvation and your reality if you are in Christ.

Your salvation means that you are:

1. Chosen—God hand-picked you before the creation of the world. He chose to place His affections upon you. He called you His own.

2. Royal—You are dignified, favored, high-class, but not in the way that this world esteems royalty. Your Kingdom is not of this world. It is far greater.

3. Holy—Only in Christ can this be possible. In a world stained by evil and sin, God has imparted His own holiness to us, and covered us in His righteousness through the gift of salvation.

4. His—You belong to Him. You have purpose. You have worth. You have value in Christ.

Now what? Why did He do all of this for us? What was His purpose in naming us, choosing us, redefining us? It was so that...

We would proclaim His praises!

Do we? Do we understand and recognize the magnitude of what our God has done for us? In a world that knows no freedom because of the chains of sin, and in a world that complicates freedom in ways that make it seem so hard to ever attain, our God declares that freedom is a two-step process:

1. Out of darkness

2. Into His marvelous light

Friends, that's it! This is your salvation.

He called you, chose you, renamed you, and took you out of the darkness of your sin, shame, and rebellion, and brought you into His light. This is freedom—to live in the light, to walk in the light, and to bring the light of your salvation to every dark place that you go.

So, arise and shine, friends! Declare the praises of the only One who could have performed this miracle of freedom in you. His name is Jesus. He breaks the power of sin and darkness, and His light is love that welcomes in the sinner—you and me. Look what the LORD has done!


- Cherie Wagner, Arise Discipleship Lead