Do You Feel Exiled In Your Own Life?

DO YOU EVER FEEL EXILED IN YOUR OWN LIFE?

The life of faith in Jesus will have its challenges. The people in Peter’s Day had lost confidence that God’s grace could be found through the Christian faith. They were wavering on the finished work of Christ on the cross. The suffering of their present day at the hands of Nero was leaving them in the throes of doubt. Understandably so! What is it in your life that causes you to doubt God’s grace as sufficient for you in your struggles? Is your health, wealth, relationships, inability to sleep, make money, find love, rise above the challenges of this life?

Do you ever feel exiled in your own life?

Do you know what an exile is? It is someone who has been forced out of their homeland.

Do you ever look at your life and say, “I didn’t expect it to turn out like this.” Or you say, “I didn’t expect that relationship to end that way or that situation to turn out that way.” Of course, we all do. We are all surprised by our own lives and not always for the good. Sometimes we can find ourselves going through the motions of our lives like we are outside of our bodies watching this experience saying to ourselves, “Who is that person?” We can lose the true core of who Christ created us to be.

Peter knew something about this. He denied Jesus three times. He discovered parts of his character that he didn’t even know existed. He ran. He wept. But in the end, the Lord gave Peter a strength we all can have in Christ.

Peter would later go through the persecution of Nero and would find strength in God’s grace, despite being an exile in his own life. I don’t know what you are going through right now, but I know that God’s grace can be applied to it.

Do you know how to stand firm in God’s grace when you feel exiled in your own life?

Look at what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:1, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,”

In Peter’s darkest hours, he remembered who he was in Christ.

I want to show you two different moments in the same person’s life so you can realize we all have good moments and bad moments, but we must choose to remember who God has declared us to be and not be defined by the poor choices we have made in our lives.

Matthew 26:73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Peter could have said I am a screw up and I have no idea why Christ gave me a second chance, or you can say, look at this passage…

Matthew 16:15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Or you can say… “Christ chose me to be this for Him.”

What title in Christ do you give yourself? Don’t be defined by your sin, your poor choices, other people’s views of you. Let Christ’s calling on your life define who you are. If you have followed Christ in believer’s baptism, first, you are Christ’s beloved child in whom He is well pleased.

You have a choice to make every day. Am I Christ’s child or am I just a screw up? I am Christ’s child, created by God to do good works to bring glory to His name. My sins do not define me. They shape how I do ministry, but they don’t determine my purpose. Christ does. If you want to stand firm on God’s grace you have to remember who you are in Christ.

Peter has his challenges like us, but he also shows us like him, we are not alone. Look at 1 Peter 1:1a, “To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,”

It is important to remember others can relate to what we are facing.

You are an “exile.” You have been dislodged from your homeland so to speak. Your faith feels foreign to the world you live in most of the time. But you are not alone. You have fellow believers who relate and understand your life because they are going through it themselves. Therefore, it is important to fellowship with other believers because they too have “exile” feelings and circumstances in their lives that they are dealing with as well.

Have you forgotten others can relate? Have you forgotten you are not the only one with struggles, challenges, confusion, and pain? Do you want to stand firm in God’s grace? Remember others can relate to the feeling of exile and aloneness too.

Peter continues with power in His words in 1 Peter 1:2, “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit,”

What does the phrase “foreknowledge of God” mean? It is more than God’s simply knowing what will take place in the future, for it includes God’s special relations with mankind even before creation. The special relations include God’s plans for our lives.

Let me say it another way, “Before you were even born, God was thinking about you and was working up a scheme for your today.” He has put a lot of preparation into your today, your tomorrow, your next week. God is already at work in your life before you were even born. He has special plans specifically tailored to you and your life.

Don’t look at somebody else’s life and wish you had theirs. It is not possible. God has cooked up good plans for you and He made you the way He made you so those plans would come to fruition.

I want to highlight a second word from verse two, “sanctification.” It is the present act of God applying the redemptive work of Christ to the plans He has for your life. God is not only at work before you are born in your today. God is at work in your TODAY. ALL the things that are occurring is for the sake of your redemption. I don’t know about you but when I know my life has purpose and a plan attached to it. I can rest in the grace and stand firm.

It is important to remember that God is already at work in your situation. He was there ahead of you and has prepared this moment, this day, this opportunity for you.

For the purpose of what? Peter tells us in verse 2, “for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:”

God wants us to be obedient to Him even if we don’t understand what He is doing in our lives, today.

How?

God wants you to say to Him, “I may not understand what you are doing in my life, but I agree you are at work, and I agree with that work. I trust you are redeeming me through it.”

And then Paul concludes verse two by saying, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

Are your feelings of “exile” in your life overwhelming you right now and drowning your faith? Remember God’s got more grace and peace to give you. Ask Him for it. You might say, yeah, but I ask Him for so much yesterday. Look at what Jeremiah says about this in Lamentations 3:22, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

I make this mistake a lot. I forget often that God has more grace, peace, and mercy to give me. He has more grace, peace, and mercy to give you too.

Pain makes us forget what matters most. We have to choose to remember God’s got this and even though our faith may be exiled by this world, His purpose for our existence will still go forth and be accomplished. Don’t focus on your mistakes, sins, and shortcomings. Yes, confess them, but don’t focus on them. Get back to focusing on God’s calling and purpose on your life so you can remember who He has made to be and live in that grace.