You are Chosen

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You are Chosen

Remember when all the kids in grade school gathered together for a game of kickball? Team captains would be appointed, and the rest of us had to wait while they picked who would be on their teams. If you were anything like me, you probably prayed pretty hard in those moments. You waited anxiously to hear your name called. It didn’t have to be first, but God, please don’t let me be last! You wanted to know that someone wanted you on their team. You wanted to be chosen.

Well, at the time, I was one of the unchosen due to my small frame. My classmates called me skinny bones, and one classmate actually wrote in my yearbook many years ago, “skinny bone punk who doesn’t like cheeseburgers.” Not sure how anyone could like the cheeseburgers served in our public school cafeteria, but that’s a story for another time. So, you can already imagine I was one of the last to be chosen most of the time. Whether kickball or red rover, I was typically one of the last names called to join a team.

Our Desire to be Chosen

The desire to be chosen is an innate desire within all human beings. From childhood, we crave the feeling of knowing that our presence matters and is genuinely wanted. We go about fulfilling this desire through a variety of means: acting like one of the “cool kids” to be accepted into their group, putting on makeup and a likable persona, or even just thinking constantly about others’ approval, believing that if we focus on it long enough, it will come to us.

Whatever our method or the number of attempts, we must realize we will never be successful when we continue to seek out the wrong sources for approval. People and things on earth can never fulfill our desire to be chosen. It’s not because we aren’t chosen—we are. It’s because we are chosen by the One who is not of this world.

God’s Chosen People

Throughout the Old Testament, we read the story of the Israelites. It begins with God’s promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. God said, “I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them! I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God” Genesis 7:6-8 NLT.

Eventually, Abraham’s descendants ended up in Egypt, and they sure were fruitful. They were so numerous that Pharaoh became afraid of them and began to wear them down with labor. At that time, God chose Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Through many signs and wonders, God accomplished this task.

Set Apart for a Purpose

While Israel wandered in the desert on the way to the land God had promised them, He gave them commandments and guidelines to protect the people of Israel—these rules were established due to God’s love for His chosen people. Why? God desired Israel to be set apart for His special purpose. They were chosen.

A little background, Deuteronomy recounts many of these commandments, as well as more of the story of Israel. Eventually, God says to them, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” Deuteronomy 7:6 ESV. He later explains further: “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt” Deuteronomy 7:7-8 NLT.

Did you catch it? God didn’t choose the people of Israel because they were big, strong, and powerful. He chose them simply because He loved them with His perfect, unconditional love.

We Are a Chosen People

If that was true of the Hebrew people, it is certainly true for us today, as well. If we are in Christ, we are adopted into God’s family. Peter writes in his epistle, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” 1 Peter 2:9 NIV.

There is no longer Jew or Gentile because we are all one in Christ Jesus (see Galatians 3:28). Therefore, if we are united under the banner of Christ, we can know that we are chosen, as well.

It doesn’t matter if we believe we are good enough. It doesn’t matter how successful we are, how many accolades we have received, or how much money we make. Our titles, possessions, and accomplishments do not determine if God will choose us or not. We may have thousands of friends, just a few, or none at all. Regardless, God loves us with steadfast love. He has declared that we are chosen—in fact, He chose us Himself—and nothing can change that fact.

Embrace the Love of God

We can live without fear of rejection because the sovereign Lord accepts us. We don’t have to live with the sole purpose of being presentable enough to be chosen by another person. We can let go of that childhood fear of being the last one picked for the kickball team, and we can let go of any doubt. We are free to embrace the perfect love of Christ.

We are a chosen people. You are a chosen daughter. God not only loves you, He likes you, and He wants to be with you. He hand-selected you to be His child, a partaker in His Kingdom and glory, and a co-heir with Christ.

Today, it is my prayer that you will accept His love, believe in God’s love for you, and rest in the truth of your unshakeable, appointed place in God’s family.

You are chosen.

You are set apart.

You, beautiful girl, are a daughter of the King.