Chosen by God
John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
What an awesome statement by Jesus. God has given all of us the opportunity to make our own choices in life. Daily we are faced with many if not hundreds of choices. What we want to eat, where we want to go, when we want to go to bed, and when we want to get up. The choices are endless. The fact of the matter is that we not only get to choose, but we never choose what is bad for us. I don’t know of anybody that gets up in the morning and decides to make bad choices. That is why we call it a mistake when we choose wrong or make a bad choice. Think with me for a second. As humans we like to always choose the best. The best car, the best spouse, the best education, the best for our children, and the list go on and on. If we as humans are like that, and we were created in God’s image, we must get that from our Father. That is exactly what Jesus is saying.
God has the ability to choose for Himself anything He wants. He chose the best He could find! The great thing about God is that if He wants something and it doesn’t exist He can always create it so that He can have what He wants. Think with me again. The invisible world was created before the visible world. God looked at all the Angels and creatures and all the heavens and all the things He created and decided that what He really wanted did not exist yet, and so He created us so that He can choose us as His choice. Remember that we only want the best. Well, God is no different from that. He truly sees things in a different light than we see it. He chose the best and He chose us. You might say or even ask why would He choose sinners.
The verse we just read answers the question for us. God always chooses with purpose. Even we choose things for a purpose. We choose the best education because we want to help other people, etc. God chose us for the purpose of bearing fruit. He sees you for the potential you have and not the mistakes you can and will make. When you want to be successful you must keep your eyes on the goal and not on the mistakes that are made. How many times in history did a football team come from behind to win the game? They didn’t focus on the mistakes but on the goal of winning. God purposed you and He is bigger than any mistake you will ever make.
Num. 16:5 And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.
This story tells of Korah that rebelled and God had to make a distinction between him and the order God chose - Moses. Look at it again. God makes another statement that is important. Whom He chooses He allows to come close to Him. In Christ, God has chosen you and that includes the fact that God gives you permission to come close to Him. How close is the fruit to the vine? He choose us to bear fruit that will remain but that fruit is only developed close to Him.
As leaders we want to encourage you to stay the course. No one that has put his hand to the plow and looked back is worthy of the Kingdom. We are committed to the cross and nothing will pull us away from our destiny. You are God’s choice for a time such as this.
You are truly significant!