Student Devotion Week 46: Your Role: Peter and the Priesthood of Believers

Key Verse: 1 Peter 2:9, " But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

I don't know how your family does it, but in order to accommodate all the people at my family's Thanksgiving, we had a kiddie table for anyone under 18. I never liked the kiddie table. I felt I was missing out on everything just because I wasn't old enough. All I wanted was to be a big person.

I'm sure the Old Testament Jews also felt this way since almost non of them were allowed in the Temple. It wasn't that they weren't old enough; they weren't holy enough. Only the priests could go before God.

This week we're going to consider an important Christian belief called the priesthood of the believer." It means that when you become a Christian, you become a priest of sorts. Instead of there being only a few priests who go before God for us, as believers in Jesus we all get full access to God. In the early Church, Peter was the one everyone looked to for spiritual guidance. But he was adamant about helping people understand that he wasn't the only one who could communicate with God. We all can listen and talk to God through Jesus Christ. Together we're all a "holy priesthood."