You Were Chosen

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God John 1:12

With all due respect to blood relatives, there is something powerful about being chosen. If you were adopted into a family, you were chosen. Your parents looked around and said, "We want her." Or "We choose him to be our son." Did you know that adoption's legal bonds are so strong that an adopted child cannot be disowned?

If you are married, then you also know the wonder of being chosen. Out of all the world your spouse chose you to share their name, to share their life, to share everything good and bad that they would encounter for the rest of their years.

But even these powerful bonds can't compare to the truth that God in His infinite grace chose to set His love upon you!

Some people struggle with this truth. They're like, "How dare God choose one person and not choose another!" If that bugs you, you still have a lot to learn about God. "How dare the clay say to the potter, ‘Why have you made me like this?'"(Isaiah 45:9). If God wants to make one vessel for honor and one vessel for dishonor (2 Timothy 2:20), that's what it means to be sovereign. I can't explain that to you. All I can tell you is that when people resist the truth about God's sovereignty to choose, it has led to two errors.

The first error people say is "A loving God wouldn't choose certain people and thereby reject others." So their rationalization leads to the idea that God chooses everyone. Yet John 1:12 says— "only those who receive Him are given the authority to be called the children of God."

Other people say God doesn't have anything to do with it. It's totally us. We're the ones that choose. If you know the Lord, it's because you choose." Of course that's not what the Scripture teaches either. Here are two verses that prove otherwise:

• Psalm 91:14: "Because He has set His love upon me, I will set Him on high. Because He has known my name"
• Ephesians 1:4: "According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world"

Somehow, before the world was made, God looked into eternity future and chose to set His love upon you. Your inner assurance shines through when you are convinced that God is personally committed to you. For no reason you can claim, you were on His most wanted list.

Being an adopted child myself, I thought that this devotional from James MacDonald was a great one and wanted to share it!