“You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”

John 15:16

A devotional

You were included in God’s plan for His creation long before the universe was formed. There you were, nestling within the mind and heart of God, while He fashioned the stars, the galaxies and planet Earth. Before He named and called the very first star into existence, He had already called and named you.

Yes, He looked through time and set His gaze of Love upon you – just as you are now.

God chose you and loves you with a passion so intense that it impelled Him to undergo the cross in order to embrace you back into Himself. You have been divinely grafted into the Tree of Life – into Jesus Christ Himself – and nothing can separate you now.

It is profoundly healing to know that God foresaw everything about us, even before we were born, and yet he still chose us to be His very own. Whatever choices we may have made in life, He never stops loving us. His great desire is for you and me to be with Him for ever and ever.

In fact, He handpicked you to be a special member of His family. A very special one, because there is no one who can fill the place that He prepared uniquely for you.

God desires for you to recognise His voice and enjoy an ongoing relationship with Him. To experience Him as the true friend who sticks closer than a brother. The friend who is always for you and who will never abandon you.

He is also the majestic King who chose you to bear the fruit that only He can grow through you, as you lean into Him and trust Him.

He is utterly faithful. You can be fully at peace, unshakable in the tender grip of His presence.

In the presence of the One who declares: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”

May these amazing words of Jesus bring fresh revelation to our hearts as we reflect on them. May they invigorate every cell in our minds and bodies so that we overflow with His Love and His Light.

A prayer in response

Lord, it is astonishing to me that you chose me, even when you could foresee the rebellion and the repeated failures in my life. I can see now that your Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Its immeasurable intensity redeems and transforms even the worst of situations.

Thank you that you see me exactly as you created me to be. The fire of your Love draws me ever closer to you, performing that which I could never do for myself. It beckons me upwards into a fuller expression of the life you have given me in Jesus.

Teach me to rest in you, moment by moment, and to believe in your unfailing promises.

By your grace, I will keep looking to you, and trusting you. For you have chosen me!

Amen.

Additional Scriptures which illuminate the theme:  Isaiah 49:1; Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139; Ephesians 1:4-6; 1 Peter 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; Colossians 3:12; Revelation 17:14.

By Ann Shakespeare   10 March 2022