SIL Sisters in Christ: Jesus chose YOU!

Hey sweet friends! It's Wednesday once again and it's time to throw ourselves back into God's word as we continue on with our Jesus 101 series. We're still going through the Gospel of John and today we're looking at John 15.

Whilst this chapter (like all) is full of goodness, there's one particular thing I want to focus on that I think is pretty profound; 

Jesus says to us;
"You did not choose me, 

but I chose you and appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit"
John 15:16

Jesus chose us. 

But hold on a second; didn't we choose Jesus? He didn't drag us kicking and screaming to follow Him, so what does He mean by this?

Let's think of it in reverse. What if Jesus said; "I didn't choose you, you choose me" - what would be the point of saying that? I don't know about you, but I'd feel a little bit rejected. Wouldn't he be saying "I don't actually want you to be following me, you're just a bit of a stalker and won't leave me alone" or maybe even "You chose this, so don't complain if something goes wrong - it was your choice" - I'd definitely be a little put off. 

But thankfully, Jesus said the opposite. He said He chose us - thus, He is probably saying that our presence here is His doing and He takes full responsibility. He knows that we agreed to join Him - but deep in our hearts we know that it was He who chose us. 

I want you to let that sink in for a second; Jesus chose us. He chose you. He chose me. He chose us. 

Jesus calls us not only to be His Friends, He chose us and called us out of the world to be a part of His Kingdom, His family. It was the work of God that brought us to Christ - not our own actions, or even the actions of the person who may have shared the Gospel with us. 

It's important to know that it's God who changes hearts - not us - especially when serving in ministry. No man or woman can obtain Salvation by their own works - it's the free gift of God. God draws us to Jesus and opens our eyes for us to see the truth. 

It's once we've had our eyes opened, our ears unclogged and our hearts given understanding that we can make a choice to follow Jesus or not. This is why sometimes, no matter how many times you try to share Jesus or the Gospel with someone, they just don't get it. They don't understand it because we cannot perceive the things which are of God unless He has chosen us.

It hurts when you feel like you've done everything you possibly can - but the person whom you are so desperate to share Jesus with just keeps pushing you and Him away - but that's when we need to pray for them. Pray that their eyes, ears and hearts are opened to the truth so that they too may choose Jesus.

But thinking about that also tends to bring up another question; Why would He chose me? Why would he choose us? Didn't he have better options?! He's got the whole world at His fingertips and yet He chose us even though we might stumble over our words or really suck at math or have no idea where Namibia is on the world map. 

Couldn't he have chosen better? 

Sometimes I ask this question about people in the Bible too. Take for instance the story of Jacob in Genesis. He was deceptive, manipulative, devious and he even went against God's plan - yet God chose him. 

You see, it's through reading God's word that we realise that God works His purposes out through ordinary, broken and even wicked people. He accepts them as His people and, through the Holy Spirit, works to change them into the people He designed them to be. 

We don't deserve God's love or mercy - but He gives it to us. He chooses us. 

Had God never sent Jesus to Earth to enable us to see in Him the image of God, we never would have known God. We were blinded by sin and dead in our trespasses, yet He called us by name and raised us from the dead. 

But what about our choice? How does our choice differ to Jesus's? 

Well, Jesus's choice was a resurrecting, life-giving choice when He called us by name and allowed us to be born again and made a child of God - our choice was simply one in response and trust in His commitment to us.

It kind of makes me think of when I was at school. You know, when you play games and you're picked one by one to be on a team. Perhaps that person picking the team was someone you were desperate to be friends with - you thought they were never going to pick you because you were pretty ordinary, but then they call out your name. It would've made you feel pretty good, no? You were personally chosen by that person to be on their team.

Now multiply that feeling by about a million and thirty three thousand - then multiply that by eternity and you have the feeling that you get when you realise that JESUS PICKED YOU! He picked you for His team!

This scenario also makes it easy to think about our choice vs Jesus's. 

Think about it this way; if WE chose to be on God's team, you might have felt that you were only on that team because He HAD to have you on there as you chose His team.  You would be there by default - but instead, you're on God's team because He called us to be His people and gave us the ability to be called His daughter! God chose us because He loves us.

Jesus doesn't set us free because He has to as we chose to be on His team. He sets us free, gives us salvation and gives us eternal life because He loves us SO much that He chose us to be His people!

Jesus chose us - not the other way around - and that's a pretty mind blowing thing if you ask me!

No questions, just thoughts! Leave your comments below and let's start a conversation about our awesome God!