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Daily Devotional

Joni Eareckson Tada’s inspirational daily devotionals are biblical insights that will enrich,
enlighten, and encourage you in your walk with Christ Jesus.

Scattered Saints

Peter… writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten.  I Peter 1:1, The Message

In the very first verse of I Peter, the apostle says he is writing to God’s elect, strangers in the world and scattered…. I’ve met sisters and brothers in Christ like that as I’ve traveled around the world. Scattered. They feel forgotten at times because they live so far from "the action," so removed from everything that seems to be happening. One brother I met in Peru who had traveled far from the Andes Mountains to attend one of our meetings told me that he was a nobody… no one of real importance. My heart went out to him, but he isn’t alone.

You don’t have to live in the mountains to feel as he does. You could be in a small apartment in a big city. You feel like as stranger in your own community—perhaps even distanced from other believers. You’re out of the flow, jobless, single, maybe divorced, and isolated. You feel like one of those “scattered” believers. If this is you, please remember the rest of those words in I Peter. You may be a stranger, and you may be “scattered,” but you are God’s elect, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ. Did you get that? The entire Trinity—Father, Spirit, Son—is actively involved in your life. And that, my friend, puts you right in the center of the real action, the divine action of God’s universe. No matter where you live, no matter how humble your circumstances, you are God’s chosen. And deeply loved and treasured by your Creator.

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Get in the flow, my friend. You’re in the mainstream of mainstreams! Praise the Father, agree with the Spirit, and obey the Son… and you’ll never feel like an isolated stranger again.

Wonderful Savior, I don’t know why you would ever choose me—let alone lay down your life to save me! I offer you this day the praise and gratitude of my heart.