Welcome to the Prayers of Rest podcast.

I'm your host, Asherita, and today we are agreeing with God when he says that in Christ,

we are chosen.

So take a deep breath and quiet your heart as we become aware of God's loving presence around us and within us.

Today's passage comes from 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

God's special possession.

Let's begin by reciting God's goodness.

Oh Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth, we praise you that in Christ Jesus we are chosen to be yours, not because of anything we have done, but because of your own tender mercies.

God, you are the one who knows our end from our beginning.

You know us, even before we were born. You know all our days, and you care for us.

How wonderful are your ways, oh Lord, how worthy of worship and adoration you are.

God, how kind and compassionate that even knowing all you know about us, you still call us chosen.

Yours.

Forever. Thank you, God. So take a moment now to praise God for calling you

his own, for choosing you by name, thank Him, that that is who you are in Christ. Let's continue now to express our neediness.

Lord, there are so many opportunities to feel left out or ignored by others,

to feel like we are on the outside of the in crowd.

And when that happens, God, would you remind us that you chose us from the beginning of the world? That because we are chosen in Christ,

no other un-chusing or are ignoring or blacklisting or canceling or any of those things,

it doesn't matter. You are the one who gives us significance and when we are chosen

in Christ, that is the one identity that matters. Remind us that what you choose doesn't get

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