For Such A Time As This

I’m not sure how you have spent your last week. I have been angry and wrestling with God about human suffering, anxious about the world and those I love, unable to sleep and keeping the night vigil, pleading, and struggling to understand all that has happened. I have been searching for a way to rest in God’s peace and love but it has been a journey.

And, while I have been venting my anger at God’s inaction in the world, God has graciously brought me back again and again to this verse.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

With this verse, God has been trying to remind me of my identity because that is where I find true freedom and peace. In times of fear and worry, it is easy for me to lose sight of God and who I am in Christ.

Do you ever think of yourself as a royal priest?

Two weeks ago, if you asked me, “Who are you in Christ?” - I do not think that priest would have made the list. It’s not a role I have spent much time considering until this past week.

There are many things that could be said about what it means to be a priest in this time. But, I want to focus on just one: being an intercessor.

An intercessor is one who intervenes or stands on behalf of another, most often in the form of prayers.

We, as followers of Jesus, have been given the gift to intervene for the world in this time, and all the time.

This is not something we do in our own strength. Jesus is the High Priest but the Holy Spirit enables us to hear the words of the Father, to pray, and to be heard by God, who is attentive to His people.

As priests for our world, we are asked to lift up the world before God and plead for mercy and grace, forgiveness and healing, restoration and redemption.

I have felt so convicted this week about the calloused heart I have had towards our world. I was joking with my husband that this disease might be turned back solely based on how much repentance I had to do.

I knew ebola was bad in parts of the African continent and I might have offered a prayer once, but certainly nothing like I am praying now. I’m not sure I have ever prayed for people dying of drug resistant tuberculosis or HIV/Aids and very rarely for those living in countries with conflicts.

I have not been fulfilling my role as a priest and intercessor for the world.

But, God, in His infinite grace, is giving me the opportunity to learn how to now. And you can learn too.

Being intercessors does not mean that we are not afraid but it is an act of knowing where to go when we are afraid. It is a step of faith that declares that our God is not absent but loves this whole world. By standing as priests, we are declaring that God is indeed our high tower, our safety in the storm, and the good God who is present with us in our pain.

The care of all humans and all creation is in God’s hands. He has never asked me to heal the whole world or make sure everyone is being taken care of. And we have to live in that truth, in this time or we will be overwhelmed.

But, over the past week, the more I have been willing to accept His sovereignty over the world, I have received a renewed desire to fulfill my priestly duties and care for the world within the right godly order - where I let God be God but I still act as a priest. And this, is where I am finding peace. 

In this time of suffering, will you put on your holy priestly garments and intercede for the suffering of our world? Will you rise up into your true identity in Christ?

Let me draw your attention to the last words of the verse,

“…that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 

There is so much hope in these words. We have been called out of darkness into His wonderful light. We are a people of light who have something to say into the darkness and that is that Jesus has overcome the darkness. It is so easy for me to forget this when all around seems so bleak. But this is very very good news for those that do not know Jesus and good news to preach to our own souls.

My prayer for you is that this time would be a refining of your faith and a strengthening of your hope and trust in God. May you experience a renewal of love for this world that God has created. May you, in this time, discover your place as a member of the royal priesthood and be apart of the blessing God wants to pour out on the world. And may the light of God’s glory shine ever brighter in this darkness.