Read 1 Peter 2:9, 10

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

Possessions of the powerful, wealthy, or famous, no matter how common, can become extremely valuable, even priceless. Napoleon’s toothbrush sold for $21,000. Can you imagine paying thousands of dollars for someone’s cruddy old toothbrush? Hitler’s car sold for over $150,000. Winston Churchill’s desk, a pipe owned by C. S. Lewis, sheet music handwritten by Beethoven, a house once owned by Ernest Hemingway. At the Sotheby’s auction of Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s personal belongings, her fake pearls sold for $211,500 and JFK’s wood golf clubs went for $772,500. Not because the items themselves are worthy but because they once belonged to someone significant.

Are you ready for a surprise? We fit that bill too. Think of the value of something owned by God. What incredible worth that bestows on us, what inexplicable dignity! We belong to Him. We are “a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9 NASB).

I love that expression: “a people for God’s own possession.” And I’m glad this verse is correctly translated in the version of the Bible I’m using. For the longest time I used a version that said, “We are a peculiar people.” (Actually, I saw all kinds of evidence of that around me, as if Christians were supposed to be odd or weird or strange.) But the correct rendering is far more encouraging. Weird or not, we’re His possession...owned by the living God.

The price paid for us was unimaginably high—the blood of Jesus Christ—and now we belong to Him. We have been bought with a price. That’s enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Have you lived so long in the family of God that your memory has become blurred? Have you forgotten what it was like when you weren’t?

For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:10 NASB)

As a result of God’s mercy, we have become a people who are uniquely and exclusively cared for by God. The fact that we are the recipients of His mercy makes all the difference in the world as to how we respond to difficult times. He watches over us with enormous interest. Why? Because of His immense mercy, freely demonstrated in spite of our not deserving it. What guilt-relieving, encouraging news!

Taken from Hope Again by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1996 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com