1 Peter 1:1-2 "I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!” Today's episode reminds us that no matter how lonely or apart we may feel, God has not forgotten us. God has his eye on each of us. We are chosen and destined by the Lord, and we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit to be obedient to Jesus. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Not One Is Missing, Not One Forgotten
1 Peter 1:1-2 "I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten. God the Father has his eye on each of you and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus. May everything good from God be yours!”
I started to finish an episode that I started over a year ago. Someone had given me the verse, and I guess I never finished the episode. However, when I started finishing it, I decided to check out the rest of the chapter and see what I was missing. I really liked all the verses that came before it in the chapter. So, I decided to start at the beginning of 1 Peter 1 and take this week to go through the first eight verses at least. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.
What stuck out to me about today’s verse is that after Jesus left the apostles, they did not all stick together in one place for very long. Yes, they went to the upper room to wait for the Holy Spirit, but then they went out to evangelize and spread the message of the Gospel to the whole world. Christianity was not welcome at that time. The Jewish people were already outcasts, and their God was not accepted by most, and now there is this new person called Jesus. The world was not sure what to do with this, and those who believed were outcasts, and many were exiled. However, this verse tells us that although they were exiled and scattered to the four winds, they were not lost, and they were not forgotten.
These are important words for us to here because we all feel apart from God at times. We feel apart from others as well. Sometimes it may feel like we are exiles scattered to the four winds. Do you know what I mean? Have you ever felt like you were alone or like you were so far away from those around you? You are not physically away. You live among your family, your coworkers, and your friends. Yet, you feel alone. You feel as though you might as well be miles away because you feel like you are in a completely different place than they are. You are not alone. This is common, unfortunately.
This is why these words are so important. No matter what you are feeling right now. No matter how different you feel or how lonely you are feeling. God wants you to know that not one of you is missing and not one is forgotten. God sees you! He knows right where you are at and even better, he will meet you right where you are at. This can be hard to believe because we often feel as though we are lost in this big wide world. We feel far from God, and we are sure that He has forgotten about us. Or, maybe He never even knew of us.
The truth is God has always known not only who we are but where we are. He has not left our side for a single moment. Nope, not even that one that just popped into your head. You know the one I am talking about. That one where you felt most alone. That one where you were so down, and you were sure that no one cared for you. Yes, even that one, He was right there with you. God has NEVER left you nor forsaken you. He has never forgotten about you. You are on His mind all of the time. Even when you are not thinking about Him, He is thinking about you.
The verse goes on to say, “God the Father has his eye on each of you and has determined by the work of the Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus.” This confirms what it says in the first half of the verse. God has His eye on each of you. There is no way you could be missing or forgotten when God has His eye on each of you. In this next part, I was not sure exactly what it meant, “And has determined by the work of the Holy Spirit to keep you obedient through the sacrifice of Jesus.” However, I think it is a bit easier to understand in the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, it says, “Chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.”
Wow, imagine that. Imagine the truth that you’re chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ. Let’s break that down: if God the Father has chosen us and destined us, that means a few things. First, it means He knows us. He knows what our purpose is, and it means we have a purpose. We have a reason for being here. We don’t always feel this way. Our emotions can get the most out of us if we let them. There can be times when we feel so lost we believe the enemy when He tells us we are alone. We believe the enemy when he tells us no one likes us or others would be better off without us. We believe the enemy when he tells us we have no purpose. However, this verse reminds us that we are not alone and that we do have a purpose.
Then the verse says that we are sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ. The word sanctification means being set apart. So we are being told the Holy Spirit is setting us apart so we can be obedient to Jesus. This was essential back in the day as the world’s values did not support the new teachings of Jesus. If they wanted to follow Him, they would have had to live differently. Luckily the Lord sent them the Holy Spirit to help them live the way they were being called to live. We are being called to live this same way. We, too, have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. If we allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and to set us apart, then He will.
We are not on our own. Jesus did not come and give us these teachings and then die on the cross for nothing. He died on a cross for our sins. He came to walk with us so He could teach us, and then the Father sent the Holy Spirit to remind us of all Jesus taught us and to give us the power to live that way. I want each of you to remember, when you are feeling lonely, when you are feeling like no one cares, that “you are chosen and destined by God the Father.” Listen to that again, YOU ARE CHOSEN AND DESTINED by God the Father. I feel as though someone needed to hear that today. Maybe we all did.
The very last line in this verse says, “May everything good from God be yours!” The RSVCE says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” Both are great. I will definitely accept all the good God has to offer. I like how the second version is more specific. May grace and peace be multiplied in you. I could definitely use more grace and more peace in my life. Actually, God has increased the peace in my life so much over the last 5 years. There used to be very little peace in my home, and now it is pretty peaceful most of the time. How about you? Do you have peace and grace? Do you need some? This verse is telling us that the Holy Spirit can give us peace and grace. If you need more, just ask. Our heavenly Father is so good, and He will give us more than we need if we just ask. Thank you, Lord, you are so good!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we are grateful you chose us and have a destiny for us. We are thankful for all the grace and the peace that you give to us. We are grateful you do not forget a single one of us. We are grateful you are always with us and that you never leave our side! We love you, Lord!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Happy New Year! I hope you all had an amazing holiday season. If you are looking to grow closer to the Lord in this upcoming year, I have several ways you can do that. First, you can join my mentoring group. The details are on my website. CLICK HERE for my website. Basically, it includes a once-a-week Zoom call where there are 30 minutes of teaching and 30 minutes of small group time. There is also a private Facebook group. If this is a bit more than you are looking for, you could tune in to the podcast daily, and I will guide you through various scriptures. If you are looking for less of a time commitment, you can sign up for my newsletter, where I will send any news that is going on in my life as well as the most popular episode for that week. CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter. If you sign up, you also get an audio teaching on how to incorporate Jesus into your everyday life. It is great. It gives very practical tips. You won’t want to miss it. I hope you all have an amazing New Year! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day.
Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, in the silence of your heart and soul, flowers bloom, and each gives a different fragrance. As you go out in the world, whatever fragrance that is needed for each person will come out because I am the Lord, and all is possible. Be my fragrant vessels of love to each and every person that you meet, whether you think they're nice or not. Let my fragrance of love spill out. Let it overflow so that they will know my love through you. I do not ask much. Just be my fragrance vessels of love.”