You Have Been Chosen

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

I opened up my email yesterday, and the words “You Have Been Chosen” was the subject line of one my emails. A retailer wanted me to take a survey on its upcoming fall clothing line. I noticed the subject line shift. Previously it had read: “Your opinion matters to us” and “We want to hear from you.”  However, the phrase “You Have Been Chosen” adds another dimension. It implies I had been set apart for something special.  The phrase turned from the value of my opinion to my value as a person.

As kids, we delighted in being picked for the Farmer in the Dell, kickball, Around the World, or whatever games we played. Our yearning for being selected didn’t stop in elementary school. It only increased as we moved through middle school and high school, and as we were welcomed into student government association, the drama club or onto the football team or the cheerleading squad. Then, we may have been chosen out of thousands of applicants to attend a specialty program or college. Finally, we may have won a position being sought after by hundreds of job candidates.
We like to be selected, especially when it’s to an elite (or even not-so-elite) group. To be chosen by man usually means that we have been selected as the best or most qualified. However, to be chosen by God often means the very opposite. 

Photo by Rikki Austin on Unsplash

Jesus chose a rough bunch to be his disciples. They didn’t have the best pedigree or education, and they were not the sharpest knives in the drawer.  However, what they were – were vessels willing to be used to accomplish His work. In John 15:15, Jesus tells his disciples that they are no longer servants, but are His friends. He upgraded them! He goes on to say in verse 16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Many people want to stop right there, but He goes on to say to them, “So that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

One of the things we struggle with is believing that we have been chosen in the first place. We look at ourselves, and ask: Me, God? Really? I’m just…or I don’t have…or I used to. Yes, YOU! Nothing in your past disqualifies you. He knows about that and will use it for His glory. Don’t tell him what you don’t have; instead, bring Him what you do have and watch Him work a miracle! Your fruit must flourish. He has chosen you. Now, choose Him!

Scriptures:

• Ephesians 1:4 - For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
• Galatians 1:15-16 - But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal His son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
• Peter 2:9 - But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• Romans 8:28-30 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Be blessed.

© 2019 by Antoinette V. Barber