I recently noticed a theme among the videogames I enjoy playing. Not death or destruction, not sports, not Mario. I like to play games where you are chosen. I enjoy playing NCAA Football because you are constantly recruiting players, hoping the best ones will attend your school. I like to play Mass Effect, because every conversation determines how loyal that teammate will be to me. I like to play FIFA because you play through a season as a player and see which teams will bid for your services. And honestly it’s probably why I don’t play huge role-playing games or the Sims, because it would be too addictive.
Being chosen is incredibly important to us. And I have found a false way to feed that need. When the truth is, being married, I was chosen as a husband by an amazingly loving and beautiful woman. And being adopted, I was chosen as a son by a loving godly family. And being a Christian, I was chosen by the God of the universe.
“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.” (1 Thessalonians 1:4, 5 ESV)
I have been chosen by God. That should end any question of value on my part. It’s is better than being chosen for any pickup game of basketball. It is better than any girl’s affection. It is better than having a hit radio song (in which case, you have to be chosen both by the music director at the radio station and by the people listening!). And yet, I still doubt my worth. I still wonder. But Paul says here to the Thessalonians that we can know we are chosen. There are three things we can look for in our lives, and in honor of preachers, they all start with C.
Change: When we are chosen, the gospel comes to us in power. Power causes change. So any good change in our lives is witness to the power of God moving in the ones He has chosen.
Connection: When we are chosen, the gospel comes to us in the Holy Spirit. God connects us to Himself by putting part of Himself in us. So any relationship we have with the Spirit, praying through Him, hearing from Him, is proof that we have been chosen.
Conviction: When we are chosen, the gospel comes to us in conviction. God desires to see His chosen be perfected. He is not satisfied to stand by and allow us to live mediocre lives. One of the ways He affects our growth is conviction. The Spirit cries out when we are choosing something apart from Him. It is a cry of grief. It is a call for change. And it is God speaking into our lives.
So I am chosen. Because I can look at my life and see how I have changed. I couldn’t have accomplished that; God must have done it. I can see that I have a connection with Him, which I obviously couldn’t have created or even earned. And I definitely feel His conviction. All these are signs to remind me that I am chosen. And that is enough for me.
Thoughts?
Todd
To understand Chosen is to understand Grace! Thanks Todd for excepting His choice!
As always Todd, you know how to say something to pull at the heart strings. Thank u for this post. It is a nice reminder of the intimacy that we share with our Creator!!
It’s hard to accept sometimes though……
Todd, I did read this when you first posted it, but I
hesitated to respond. Since you’ve
brought it back to my attention, I’ll respond to this part of your post in
particular:
“I have been chosen by God.
That should end any question of value on my part. … And
yet, I still doubt my worth. I still
wonder.”
I’ve heard you say similar things before, and it’s always made me sad. God uses you in so many ways; I see it, and so do many others, yet you still doubt your worth. None of us are worthy on our own, no, not one. The fact that we are chosen certainly doesn’t make us worthy, but rather it’s a testament to God’s great love and mercy. Only through His salvation and sanctification are we able to walk in His
worthiness. He alone makes us worthy.
I have no idea why He chooses those He does, and I suppose I don’t need to understand either. I know He chose me, and I am forever grateful, although I have no idea why He reached down and saved me. I don’t know why He wooed me all those years, and stayed nearby until I was ready to surrender, but He did. I don’t know why He wanted to pick me up and clean me off, or why He decided to walk me home, but He did. I don’t need to understand in order to be grateful. It’s a gift, freely given, but never deserved.
I pray that you would be able to extend as much grace to yourself as you are always eager to extend to others.
See, maybe now you know why I hesitated to respond to this
one. God bless you Todd, and God bless yours!
Tess
I can relay to this. Thanks Todd and Tess. My confidence is at the zero to the negative level. I am at my thirties, and yet sometimes the question of who am I and what am I here for still lingers in my mind specially when I move my eyes away from the Lord. But then again.. God uses people like you to remind me that I am not alone, and my worth is not of what I have accomplished but just simple because He choose me.. that humbles me.. and amazingly.. give me confidence. God bless you!
Sherry,
I pray that God would be your comfort and assurance.
God bless,
Tess
I like your 3 points: Change, Connection, Conviction. This is such a different message than those who boast about being chosen as if their goodness had something to do with God’s choice.
I think doubt and wonder about our worth are part of the human condition. We are choking on the lies we’ve believed and lacking faith to trust God to be reliable and credible. Our minds may accept truth, but it sometimes takes our hearts longer to respond so we can truly live in His truth. That’s why I often pray, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”
I’m so glad you characterized the Spirit’s response to our failure/sin by a cry of grief rather than condemnation. I respond so much better to the gentle promptings of the Spirit to go in another direction than the judgmental, harsh messages I sometimes hear from people.
Thank you for this good news of the Gospel that gives all glory to God.
Hey Todd, I just started to listen to you found a cd of yours at church someone put in a cd exchange, so I got it free when I finally listened to it I thought wow this is kinda rock ee and not bad but only after listening several times did I start to get your message in “something beautiful”
I play acoustic guitar and the lord has blessed me with a little bit of song writing ability, its more like listening close and going with the flow and then trying to remember what the lord just did….if your ever in Illinois and want to get together to jam share some songs and have some fellowship that would be awesome…..so anyway I mostly listened to your cd cause it is rocky and a great workout cd to put in while working out, and it really started to grow on me…alot!!! “new name”
I wrote the following down on some paper and put it in my bible while listening to a sermon ( got a whole different on, happens a lot)
Do you remember the movie “Captain America”? 2/12/2012 I wrote The looks he got when weak/when strong….( most looked at his outward appearance when he was a scrawny little guy trying to get in the army to fight the evil Germans and he had to lie 6 or 7 times and kept getting rejected cause he was too little and what ever the other reasons were but by chance… the Doctor who invented the machine to make a super warrior seen him and looked not at his outward appearance but at his heart and singed his papers to let him get in the army then got him into his special program, and the awesome seen where everybody in the program is big and muscular and he is puny and little an embarrassment says the Officer in charge ( Tommy Lee Jones) then he throws the fake hand grenade on the ground to prove that he is unworthy to be there fully expecting him to run and his pic a big guy to jump on it, but quite the opposite happens and the big guys runs and the little guys jumps on the grenade to save his fellow soldiers, which shows his heart, that is how god sees us , when he looked at Zacheus he said lets eat at your house and the love he felt caused him to repent and change, cause Yashua/Jesus looked at him differently ( the looks ) condemnation or acceptance? I personally do not like to take communion because most of the time it is focusing on our sin and makes us as unworthy sinners and that is the FOCUS of the whole ceremony rather than that we WERE sinners and now we are SAINTS yeah we still fall and are always in need of his grace but that was the whole point of the cross…. God sees us as CAPTAIN AMERICA in the movie when he was changed he became powerful and went out to fight against evil, that is what god wants us to do not to focus on our sin that is what the devil wants us to do, because then we will not even start to fight thinking ourselves unworthy and never realizing the awesome power that was given to us to take up our sword and our SONSHIP and to start speaking and ruling with the authority that is given us…the hymm says” my sin not in part but the whole, was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more bless the lord o my soul”…and in His own words he says ” I came not to condemn, but to save….to save us to do something, big things , little things but to know we are His Brothers….
I should have spell checked that post here is a better version of it sorry , LOL my wife would be ashamed and embarrassed.. “new name”
I
wrote the following down on some paper and put it in my bible while
listening to a sermon ( got a whole different one, happens a lot)
Do
you remember the movie “Captain America”? 2/12/2012 I wrote The looks
he got when weak/when strong….( most looked at his outward appearance
when he was a scrawny little guy trying to get in the army to fight the
evil Germans and he had to lie 6 or 7 times and kept getting rejected
cause he was too little and what ever the other reasons were, but by
chance… the Doctor who invented the machine to make a super warrior
seen him and looked not at his outward appearance but at his heart and
signed his papers to let him get in the army then got him into his
special program, and the awesome scene where everybody in the program is
big and muscular and he is puny and little an embarrassment says the
Officer in charge ( Tommy Lee Jones) then he throws the fake hand
grenade on the ground to prove that he is unworthy to be there fully
expecting him to run and his pic a big guy to jump on it, but quite the
opposite happens and the big guy runs and the little guys jumps on the
grenade to save his fellow soldiers, which shows his heart, that is how
god sees us , when he looked at Zacheus he said lets eat at your house
and the love he felt caused him to repent and change, cause Yashua/Jesus
looked at him differently ( the looks ) condemnation or acceptance? I
personally do not like to take communion because most of the time it is
focusing on our sin and makes us as unworthy sinners and that is the
FOCUS of the whole ceremony rather than that we WERE sinners and now we
are SAINTS yeah we still fall and are always in need of his grace but
that was the whole point of the cross…. God sees us as CAPTAIN AMERICA
in the movie when he was changed he became powerful and went out to
fight against evil, that is what god wants us to do not to focus on our
sin that is what the devil wants us to do, because then we will not even
start to fight thinking ourselves unworthy and never realizing the
awesome power that was given to us to take up our sword and our SONSHIP
and to start speaking and ruling with the authority that is given
us…the hymm says” my sin not in part but the whole, was nailed to the
cross and I bear it no more bless the lord o my soul”…and in His own
words he says ” I came not to condemn, but to save….to save us to do
something, big things , little things, and to know we are His
Brothers….