Chosen

My spiritual life until age thirty was downright boring.

I grew up with parents sold out to Christ and His kingdom, but I was merely a bystander watching them using their gifts, convinced that I truly had none of my own. And so each Sunday would roll around. I would dutifully sit in my pew, sing the songs as a member of the congregation, open my Bible during the sermon, and try to suppress the restlessness I felt that there had to be more to this life with Jesus than I was currently experiencing. I just didn’t know how to make that happen.

I did not grasp a fundamental principle that turned my life upside down for the better once its truth started to slowly permeate my thinking:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
John 15:16

The plan is already in place. The empowering is already there. The purpose has already been determined. I didn’t suddenly choose Christ and He needed to figure out where to put me. No. He chose me. And He didn’t choose me for some mundane task that will not amount to much of anything. He has given me the privilege of being involved in bearing fruit that is eternal. More than that, when I am confused about the plan, overwhelmed in my weakness to fulfill it, and feeling purposeless, I can ask my heavenly Father to realign my thoughts with His own. I have been promised that when I pray in the mighty Name of Jesus, I will have my request!

I was sharing with my beautiful sixth grade young women yesterday that not understanding that we have been chosen will result in wasted lives.

“Don’t miss it, my darling girls. So many women have. You need to understand that Jesus has a purpose for each of your lives that will blow your mind if you understand that He has already chosen you specifically, gifted you, and empowered you with His Holy Spirit to carry it out.”

There is no such person as a waste. A forgotten, looked-over, left-out reject. But there are plenty of us who will never understand the truth that we have been chosen. That we were loved before we even knew Who loved us. We can miss the whole purpose for which we were born, believing the lie that we are just supposed to get through this life and then we die. How horrible to live like that when the abundant life awaits every single person who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ and makes Him Lord.

The pressure is off! Are we asking diligently, desperately, “Lord, speak, for your servant is listening,” or are we just hoping we will stumble on the plan? It’s time to stop trying so hard by manipulating others and circumstances in order to feel fulfilled. There is a life unimaginable out there for those who will understand they are chosen.