Ephesians 1:4-5 (ESV) 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[a] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
Growing up as a child I lived in a perpetual state of “loneliness.” For any child, there are two sources of acceptance in life. There is the acceptance at home, and then there is the acceptance of your peers at your school if you were a public-school child that is.
Sadly, there was neither for me. My home was one of abuse and heavy feelings of not being appeasing to my parents. School wasn’t much better. I was the nonathletic, chubby, nerdy kid. So, I certainly wasn’t winning any popularity contests. I grew up in the church my grandfather pastored over. Even there it didn’t quite “feel right” with the exception of my grandparents themselves.I was constantly being driven to people pleasing to seek acceptance and affirmation. It haunted my until my mid-30s, without me fully even realizing it. There were times I even remembered wishing I was part of a different family. A “normal” one. Hoping that someday some random kind family would walk right up and choose me.
Fast forward into a man who is now 40 (and feeling ancient), I see so fully of how God used this in my life. The above scripture stands out so profoundly on this very topic. We are CHOSEN by God Himself.Let me say that again…. GOD, the Creator of all things…the Master of Eternity…The Infinite…The Boundless…The Stunning and All-Encompassing Lord of everything we experience, has chosen me. Read that back and do it out loud!
Looking at the scripture from Ephesians, we see Paul lay it all out before the church of Ephesus both bluntly and beautifully. This is one of Paul’s Epistles, and it was written to the church in Ephesus most certainly. Yet it is also applicable to the modern church today! This is a universal truth! God Himself handpicked all members of His Church.
He called you. He chose you. He changed you. He loves you. He leads you. He wants you…He wants YOU! In spite of your shortcomings. In spite of your sin. In spite of your times of disobedience. In spite of the ugly secret sins we keep hidden from others. He knows them all and He chose you.
I ask myself this one-word question daily. Why? What do I have to offer such a magnificent one as God? Now let’s ask it collectively for all of us in faith in Him! What could a perfect and eternal God want to do with a bunch of dishonest, adulterous, angry, violent, thieving, deceitful, idolatrous people?
You want to hear the answer? I don’t know. You know what else is so astounding? Paul didn’t either. Looking again in that Scripture we see Paul punt on that question without being asked. “According to the purpose of His will…”
It is a truth! One we can cling to and one that should bring us endless hope and joy! We serve HIS will. Not the other way around. Paul didn’t lay out a specific list of qualifications by which God used. He didn’t dream of speaking as a finite man on behalf of a infinite God. No. He gave us a blanket truth as a means to say, “I don’t know”.
For HIS Will. Church, I will never know why God chose us. I will never know why, long in Eternity Past, before Creation, God picked up his proverbial pen and “inked” our very existence into being. Our characteristics. What we have for lunch. What job will we have or who will we marry. The losses we would experience or the challenges we face.
Yet I will say this, I am so thankful for it. When this realization hit me fully, to my very core it changed my perspective. I am no longer alone, and neither are you.
SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!
