No
race but the human race in God’s eyes, but the Lord has much more in mind!
Regardless of our skin color or cultural background, God has ordained us to be
one: a Holy Nation, a Royal Priesthood, the people of God.
This hope – this prayer of the Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus – goes back thousands of years as these verses show:
“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth,” Deuteronomy14:2, King James Version (KJV.)
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,” 1 Peter 2:9, Revised Standard Version (RSV.)
If you’ll click on the highlighted chapters and verses above, those hotlinks will take you to many, many translations of the same passages as shown on the Bible Gateway website, but, throughout the Bible, the same idea appears.
Maybe this time we’ll get it right! Maybe this time we’ll have ears
to hear.
Maybe this time we’ll respond – not with excuses or emotions or bad memories
or experiences but with our own choice
to be chosen.
No longer are we to be “us” versus “them.” As Galatians 3:28 says: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” English Standard Version (ESV.)
What a colorfully diverse peoples God’s chosen race is meant to be!
Sometimes those differences may clash, but if we’re all praying for God’s guidance and prepared to let Him work for our good – the good of All of His Chosen Race and Peculiar People – we’ll see God orchestrate even our worse memories into melody and bring harmony from discord.
Praying and following biblical guidelines for good make us more receptive to God’s love and the love of others. As 1 John 4:7 says:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God,” Christian Standard Bible (CSB.)
What power we’ve been given to reveal God’s love to the world!
Born of God! No longer are we born into the DNA of racial tension or elitism over which we had no control, but – by our own choice – we can choose God’s Way over our own.
“And
now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is
true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think
about things that are excellent and worthy of praise,” Philippians 4:8,
New Living Translation (NLT.)
Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2021
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