Meditate Upon What is Excellent

This past June I celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary with my wife. A few months earlier I had led a leadership retreat for another church and as a way of saying thanks that church gave me a gift card to a wonderful restaurant in Seattle. I decided that my anniversary would be the time to use the gift card at this expensive restaurant.

I’ve been to a lot of restaurants through the years and this was without competition for the best meal and the best service I’ve ever experienced. Our waitress had served at this restaurant for 11 years. She had great people skills, graciously helped us make an order and then prepared much of what we ordered at our table which was entertaining to watch. When we finished our meal I left the largest tip I’ve ever given because I was absolutely “wowed” by every aspect of my time in this restaurant.

Have you already begun asking yourself, “Where did Scott eat? What’s the name of this place?” I wrote a post about it in June and you can click here and read it.

My point is that when we begin to speak to others of persons or places that we’ve experienced that are excellent, others want to know more.

Have you experienced the excellencies of God? Read 1 Peter 2:1-10.

Verse 9 says that God has chosen us to proclaim His excellencies to others. If you daily and personally experience God then like I did with the restaurant, you have a list of qualities and provisions to extol about God. It moves you to want to respond to Him, not with the biggest tip you’ve ever given, but with a whole hearted offering of yourself to God.

Peter gives a brief list of the excellencies of God. Read and meditate upon Peter’s list and then consider your own list of how excellent God is and how marvelous God is to you personally.

Peter points out that--
*God is building a new spiritual house; an excellent community.
*God has supplied the perfect cornerstone (Jesus) around which the house is built.
*God is making you and me into choice/excellent stones that build the house/community.
*God is making us a chosen race (a new race), a royal priesthood, and a holy nation.

Note that God is so great He is able to accomplish these things with us even though we come to Him as a complete mess. We were full of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. We were in darkness. We were “no people”. We were without mercy.

God is so excellent He was able to take defective “materials” such as our lives and build something magnificent. Let us proclaim His excellencies today.