Tune My Heart, Episode 23
- Stacy Bishop
- Dec 23, 2024
- 3 min read
Happy Sunday, friend. As you prepare for worship this morning, let’s take a moment of quiet to invite God’s presence into your awareness today.
Well, friends, a new year is almost here. How quickly they seem to come! As we leave the old and enter the new, I’ve been thinking about what things I’m carrying with me into this new year. If I took everything I was carrying right now, I would carry in some hurt, some burdens, some unnecessary feelings of shame. I don’t know if I can just lay them down and enter 2025 in a new, carefree way, but I do want to pay attention to what I’m carrying and what I should be carrying.
1 Peter 2:9-10 says:
9 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. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
If you’re a worship leader, you’ve almost certainly heard this before, but this verse reminds us that we are priests. The Levitical priests of the Old Testament had the responsibility of taking care of the tabernacle, all of its furnishings and, most importantly, the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized God’s holy presence. It was a high calling with much responsibility and requirement to hold to the rules of caring for these sacred things. And here, in the New Testament, Peter calls us a royal priesthood.
The difference between the Old Testament priesthood and the New? As believers in Christ with the gift of the Holy Spirit, we carry the presence of God with us wherever we go. He’s not confined to a sacred space with stringent rules, He dwells within us. We aren’t carrying His symbolic presence, but His actual, indwelling Spirit. And that’s what I want to carefully carry into 2025 with much intention. How do we do that?
Well, I believe the rest of that passage says more about this—the section is actually subtitled “Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society,” where Peter outlines living blameless, holy lives. He then says this:
21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”[e]
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,”[f] but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
How do we carry God’s presence with us into 2025? By being sure that we are living Godly lives. Honestly, as we end this year, I’d challenge all of us to pray that God would convict us of any ways that we are not living up to His standard. I think that’s the way we can best lead in the coming year.
God,
Thank You for sending Jesus in this season, and thank You for the comforter, the Holy Spirit, who came to be with us when Jesus ascended into heaven. Your Spirit, Your presence, is a gift we often take for granted. As we go into this New Year, help us to carry Your presence well. To live and lead with integrity, that Your light might shine more brightly through us. Thank You for your kindness, compassion and mercy that move us to repentance when we need it and draw us close to You. We love You, God. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen
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