Today my daughter gets married! I’m feeling quite emotional but I am so happy and so proud. She has been chosen by a lovely, kind man who I have come to love also.
She was of course already chosen and that has always been a privilege to watch her come into the knowledge of this. God chose her.
And He has chosen you.
You know you. If you were being perfectly honest then you wouldn’t have picked you. But He did. When it didn’t make sense and when the odds were stacked against you, He chose you! And He did it right on time!
“For we know, brothers and sistersloved by God, that he has chosen you! (1 Thessalonians 1 v 4)
Like my daughter, you are not chosen for activity but relationship. She is not chosen to do the house chores (that’s definitely not going to happen!) but an intimate journey that 2 people share together. What matters is that you are chosen not for activity but relationship with Jesus! How we need more people to realise that!
When did that choosing happen? For my daughter to be a wife it was after she preached a sermon in church a year ago when she was invited out for dinner; that was one good sermon!
When were you chosen by God? Was it when you did something amazing? No of course not! It was when you was never even here. It was before any of us were here. Before the world began He saw you and He chose you. He actually chose us. He saw in His mind the Church, you and me, together as a community being built for His glory. Not chosen to be an island but in connection.
Oh one more thing. The phrase ‘loved by God’ (read the verse again) was only used by and for special heroes of the Jewish faith (Moses and David for example) and it was also used only for Israel as a whole. It was certainly not used for people outside of the Jewish faith. It would never have been used for you and me. Until Christ came and because of Him we use it now for we are indeed loved by God! Loved and Chosen.
Missions Paul 