08/03/2017
Has God called you to Himself, or is He calling you this morning? By virtue of the fact that you have chosen to read this devotional lesson I would say He has. Maybe you thought you were choosing Him, but in fact He has chosen you. Does this thought surprise you, or even frighten you?
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
John 15:16 ESV
Jesus selected His disciples; they were given free rein to say "no", but He picked them. It interests me that there is no account of any that he asked to follow Him who turned the offer down. So why is this so? It is because God had called them long before Jesus said "follow me." Listen to the words of Jesus...
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—”
John 6:44-45 ESV
The Apostles were all chosen, and we have been chosen as well. You might think to yourself "I am unworthy. God would never call me", but my friend, He sees in you the finished work and not who you are when He first convicts your heart. God calls us to Jesus in order to accomplish His will, and to perfect us in the process.
I have often remarked that God seemed to always pick the most unlikely men and women to make His biblical heroes and heroines. Abram was chosen to receive the blessing of populating the world with his seed... and yet He and his wife Sarai were infertile. Sarai even talked Abram into sleeping with her handmaiden in an attempt to give him a son. Moses would be asked to lead the Israelites out of captivity, but he was a murderer who couldn't speak well. Tamar married two of Judah's son (both died) before tricking her father-in-law into sleeping with her and giving her a child. David was a man who couldn't seem to say no to his lust, and even had a husband killed so that he could have this man's wife. If you were interviewing any of these men or women, would you select them for the job of Hero or heroine?
When I was a boy and we would choose up sides for a baseball game we would choose our teammates for many reasons. We would always want our best friend, and then there was Jim who was a real slugger, and Joey who fielded every ball hit, but at some point the choices became arbitrary as the lesser friends and players were selected. Finally, someone would end up with Bobby. Bobby is the guy who could not walk and chew gum at the same time; he was the one that every fly ball seemed to hit in the nose rather than find his glove. He was always the last pick.
Bobby is a real person. He was a boy in my neighborhood, but today you wouldn't recognize him. He has been a reporter for the Washington Post, and a very successful author and is now a pastor. He has a family, a nice car, and a fine home. Bobby surprised us all. God loves Bobby... I know this because God loved Moses, and David, and Tamar. God picked Bobby, but he didn't kick the dust and say "Dang, not again!" when He did it. So who are you, that God would overlook you?
Jesus Himself confirms that the Apostles were given to Him by God. It is mentioned several times in the New Testament, but was prophesied to happen long before that. Here are the words of Jesus...
“This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: "Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one."”
John 18:9 ESV
You are chosen... you are special in the eyes of God. Revel in this, and as Jesus calls out to you, then follow Him.
You can say no, and as a matter of fact you can change your mind at any point during your journey with Christ. We don't have to look far to find an example... Judas Iscariot should be proof enough of that. He was one of the apostles chosen by Jesus, and yet, he betrayed Him into death. In fact, we have no idea why God has chosen us, and we must deal with this mystery every day. Oswald Chambers speaks of this in a most profound way when he writes these words...
"We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God's purpose, we are taken up into God's purpose without any consciousness at all. We have no conception of what God is aiming at, and as we go on it gets more and more vague." - Oswald Chambers
If you are thinking " How can I be chosen, or follow Him, because I don't understand Him" well, if you were to understand Him you would be the first. Understanding Him is not a prerequisite for this journey. As God reveals Himself to us and asks us to do things for Him, we think we are beginning to understand Him, but then we are suddenly redirected and it becomes clear that we really didn't know Him that well after all. God's ways are a mystery to us, and we have no way of thinking as He does. Isaiah tells us this too.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
Suffice it to say that God has chosen you, and that He has given you to Jesus Christ, and that you are to serve the will of the Father just as Jesus has, and that your faith will increase as your journey unfolds, and that one day you will stand with Jesus before the throne of God to be judged, and that if at that moment you are found acceptable through Jesus then despite all of the confusion and doubt you experienced along the way you will be brought into the eternal presence of God and called child. We don't chose God, we merely chose to believe and follow Him.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for choosing me when I wouldn't have chosen myself. I thank you for seeing in me some good purpose, and for making me into the man you would have me be. Holy Father, I ask your forgiveness for doubting your choice. I also ask that you forgive me for the feelings I harbored when I was last to choose and ended up with Bobby on my team... because in the spiritual world I am Bobby, and yet you chose me lovingly and joyfully. You saw Bobby and you saw me in a way that no one would have predicted... you knew our hearts while we were yet in the womb, and you said... "I pick him!" Praised be your name Father, and let all those you have chosen serve you well.
Rich Forbes