Do you ever wonder what it means to be chosen by God? Everywhere we look we can find at least one person talking about their chosen status; My best guess is, it is a way to feel special. Some people do show that they are chosen by the way they live. But can we mere mortals be chosen by God?
The good news is, yes. God is calling all who are alive to believe in Jesus and to follow him. Some of these will be chosen. But what are we chosen for? What does it mean when God chooses us?
In John 15 verse 16 (15:16) Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you to bear much fruit. Fruit that will last, so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you”.
The chosen people of God can even be our next-door neighbors. These are people who for the most part choose to lead quiet lives, living set apart for God. For the most, the chosen people don’t go shouting it. Instead, they live a life that displays the love of God, sometimes with a side of crackpot. The chosen know why God calls them in the first place. It wasn’t because we are good people. Some of us were living life as invisible people. Some were living life as horrible people.
This is what Jesus says about the chosen “You did not choose me. I chose you and appointed you so that you may go and bear much fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you”.
And Matthew 5:14 Jesus says, “you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” In saying these words, the Lord explains that those who are chosen carry his light in a world of darkness. We shine this light so others know that God wants them to turn and live free from sin and condemnation.
Being chosen by God gives us the power to resist sin and a lot of evil we could not resist while we were without God’s power. The Lord says about this “anyone who will follow me will deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”, in Luke 9:23. What it means to be chosen is to grow into the life that calls us to leave the ways of the dead behind us when we are chosen to follow Jesus. We all experience trouble and temptations, some of us even fall into sin, the chosen do not remain fallen because they know why God called them.
To be chosen by God is to believe God and live empowered by the truth in a world full of lies. That there will be a day of judgment, where God will sit and judge all people. So the chosen live a life that, as Jesus says in John 14:15-21 ‘those who love him will keep his commands’. To be chosen means we are set apart for Jesus our King, and for His kingdom. In being chosen we are assured of salvation and are able to freely live in the way of God.
The chosen live Psalm 119:30 saying “I have chosen the way of truth. Your ordinances I have set before me”. This is because when we are chosen we get to know God because He comes and teaches us what his words mean. The learning is a lifelong process for those wondering; none of this happens overnight, unless God wants to awaken someone overnight. For most of us it may take years or decades for us to get over ourselves and the sins we struggle with. But the chosen people of God do not give up on life, because our God is faithful in everything. We believe God will complete the work he started in us, as written in Philippians 1:6.
The life of the chosen is a lifelong process of growing in the righteousness of God. We do stumble like babies. But we are confident that Jesus overcame this life as he testified in John 16:33. Revelation 12:11 tells us we overcome by the blood of Jesus Christ and the word of our testimony. Being chosen means we mature in grace and the Spirit of Jesus Christ through the work of God in our hearts.
Sometimes our cracks do show though, we are only fleshlings. 1 John 2:1 tells us that we have an advocate when we fall to the temptations.
The chosen live a peculiar lifestyle of humility and peace in the presence of God. While some will say we live boring lives, following Jesus is full of wonder and fun. We are chosen, not to life a braggadocios life, but to live a life that shines the light of Jesus and bear fruits fit for the kingdom of God. Chosen to prepare to live beyond the grave forever. Our lives here on earth is to be lived in a way that invites others into the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.
God chose us not just to bow our heads and “act” like we’re good, but to live according to His word, which is life. By our lives we invite everyone into the kingdom because we were once outside in sin. We are not chosen because we were good, but because God decided to choose us to live with him forever.
The secret sauce about the chosen is, you are also called by God. Believe in Jesus and you have the hope of being chosen too.
