Understanding Your Rights

“Understanding Your Rights”

1st Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Often times you will see someone or speak with them and ask the question “How are you doing” and many times the reply that you get, if we are honest with ourselves we do not really want to hear. They begin by saying things aren’t going to well, my back is aching, my chest is tight, my kids are driving me crazy, my marriage is on the rock, all in all things are going to pot, my day is bad, my life is bad, there seems as if there is no rest for the weary, I’m tired and I wish that everything was over, the devil is making mince-meat out of me and I don’t know just how much more I can take. These are saved folks talking like this. They go through life being bombarded by the devil, tossed around like an old rag doll, held in psychological slavery, they are emotionally destitute, they are spiritually impoverished, and are literally at the point of just about ready to lose their natural minds.

The reason they are suffering the things they are suffering and the reason why their lives seems to be in utter turmoil is because they have failed to understand their rights, they have not yet comprehended that they have certain rights that are afforded to them just because of who and whose they are.

The Christian of today faces many challenges in life; there are many obstacles that must be faced. Trials and tribulations must come, for as the old cliché states “into every life a little rain must fall”, but in the midst of it all you must understand your rights.

Rights, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is something to which one has a just claim, the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled, and something that one may properly claim as due. There is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family it is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. It establishes that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. It states that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. That’s the rights of just being human-beings.

There are civil rights and political rights, as well economic, social and cultural rights. There are women’s right, gay rights, and religious rights. There is what is called Miranda Rights, which states even if a person has committed a crime and you know with out a shadow of doubt that they are guilty, they have rights, before they can be arrested they are informed of their rights. If they are not informed of these rights before hand it could lead to the dismissal of the case and they could be set free even though proof has shown that they are guilty. So it is imperative that they know their rights. There are spiritual rights that we as children of God must understand as well.

The Bible says in 1st Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

This scripture gives us such an illustrative awareness of the rights that are ours if we just come into the realization of them. The writer, the Apostle Peter, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, is trying to plant into the spiritual intellect the concept of understanding just who and whose we are and the rights that we have because of our status.

To be chosen is to be one who is the object of choice or of divine favor, an elect person, selected, and preferred for a certain and divine purpose, the object of choice. Oh you didn’t catch that, an object is something that when viewed stirs a particular emotion, something toward which thought, feeling, or action is directed, a cause for attention or concern. We are a chosen generation, when God looks at us it stirs His emotion of Love and compassion and He directs His blessing down upon us, WHY, because we are chosen and are the cause for His attention and concern. We are chosen somebody say chosen.

We are chosen by God Himself, to fulfill a specific purpose in His divine plan and have been predestined (predestinated) to the culmination of that plan ever since the beginning of time, for the Bible says in Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Also John 15:16 says “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”