Remember in school when they were picking teams? I was not usually first pick. Or even second or third. Kickball, baseball, whatever. (In Florida as a kid we had to do square dancing for phys ed – don’t even get me started. That’s just mortifying all around. Being shy and uncoordinated is not a ‘gift’ no matter how they spin it.) There are a few of you out there who even got to be team captains. Good on ya. The rest of the populace are not like you.
Later in life it gets serious - like the job you get offered, the team you work with, the election you win or the role to which you are appointed, your offer awarded, your contract granted, your project that gets funded. Or when she accepts the ring and your proposal of marriage. Being chosen is a matter of life-altering consequence.
Being chosen can determine the place you will dwell and defend, the position in which you sacrifice and serve, the people with whom you live and love.
When it comes to you as a person, when its about your character and identity that is being accepted or rejected, God tells us something critically important about being chosen. He chose you. Listen:
Deut 7:6-8NIV “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers…”
1 Cor1:26-29NIV “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him”
He chose you, even though He knows everything about you. There’s no polishing up the resume or diverting attention towards the positive, no dropping details or hoping they don’t ask about a certain situation. He knows – and He chooses you anyway.
Isaiah 41:9-10NIV “I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
He says it over and over:
Isaiah 43:10-11 "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.”
We are chosen by God, for God, so that we might know Him and be in intimate relationship with Him. We can give witness of the lover of our souls, that He is good, and that no matter how crazy everything gets, we can trust Him, that we can face difficult and impossible things – because He is with us.
Jesus said: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” John 15:16NIV
Know that when you follow Jesus, for the most important choice in front of us in this short life and the never-ending one to come, you are chosen.
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