We Are Chosen

Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days of my life were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:16 (AMP)

A typical scene in a school playground is children choosing sides to play a game like soccer or kickball. The first chosen are always the best players. The ones who are known to come through with a good kick or defense play. They are agile, equipped to do the job and will play with energy. We all want to be that person that is chosen among the first because we are able.

In Ephesians 1:4-5 we find that God chose us. Vs 4 “…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will…” Wow! Imagine being chosen by the Ancient of Days, the Creator of the Universe to do His will!

Many of us just don’t realize how very important we are to God. He knows us before we are formed in our mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:16) He wrote our future, as He saw it, in a book in Heaven even before we took our first breath on this earth. Ephesians 1:4 says that He chose us so we could be holy (a saint, a believer who is physically and morally pure) and without blame (covered with the sacrificial blood of Jesus) and walking in the love of God as only God can give. God had already written our lives down (predestined) us to choose to accept His Son as the One who would redeem the world from sin. It will not happen automatically, for we are given a choice.

I have heard it put this way which helps us to understand how much God loves us and wants us to be His adopted child. Every human being had their name written in God’s Book of the Living. This book contains the name of every single human being that ever existed on the earth whether they heard of Jesus Christ or not; whether they became a believer or not, they are in that Book. The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) So He will send people, send His Word, a magazine or book, a radio or television message to share the Good News of the Gospel to them. Again, it is an individual choice to make a decision whether to believe or not.

When someone accepts the message of the Gospel, their name is moved from the Book of the Living to the Lamb’s Book of Life. Paul writes in Philippians 4:3 “And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life.” This is the Book that will be opened in Judgment (Rev. 20:12) and we want our names in that Book!

What is important to remember is that when we have our name in that Book, we are adopted as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself! Jesus chose us to do the work here on this side of heaven as His ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. When a child is adopted by a couple, they chose that child specifically to be in their family. They give that child their name, and all the rights and privileges of one in the family, and finally, they will bequeath all that they own to him. That is exactly what Jesus has done. He has chosen us, made us a legal heir and gave us all the rights and privileges of one being in His family. We must never take our citizenship in the Kingdom of God lightly. It is powerful and we must be willing to explore what we have been bequeathed.

Confession: First of all, I must choose to accept Jesus as my Savior. After that, my job, as an adopted child of the Living God is to understand what has been given to me as an heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus Christ. I also understand that my name has been written not only in the Book of the Living, but in the Book of Life when I accept who Jesus is and what He did on the cross for me.