CHOSEN

CHOSEN

Ephesians 1:4 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in his love.”

Let's focus on the first part of this verse for a moment. Acceptance is so very important to us as human beings. We long to be loved and accepted not only by family but friends, classmates and co-workers. For many of you, a feeling of rejection may be something you have lived with for most of your life. Perhaps even now you are picturing a circumstance in which you were rejected or failed to be chosen for an activity or position you greatly desired. Even greater pain may accompany the thoughts or picture of the rejection of a particular person or persons in your life. You were not chosen but rejected and felt a sense of worthlessness, a person of no value. All of us will experience this in our lifetime repeatedly. Being rejected and even betrayed by others as well as being overlooked for positions of leadership or inclusion in others' plans will bring a pain of feeling unacceptable. But this verse clearly tells us God has chosen us in him before the foundations of the world.

Even if you have felt you were a mistake or accident or have been told you were a surprise and felt unwanted by the first persons who were to provide the love and acceptance you needed as a child, you were not a surprise to God. In Psalm 139:15-16, David declares that God's eyes were fixed on us in the earliest stages of being formed in our mother's womb. He knew us when we were nothing more than “substance” without hands, fingers, or toes. He took note of every detail as we were being formed but he knew us before we were ever conceived. I remember the day the Holy Spirit, the Revealer of God's plan, impressed these thoughts on my heart. I was reading the Message Bible and came to the scripture above....

“Long before He laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. “

Before He even spoke the world into existence or ever called out for the moon, the sun or the stars to shed light on this world, He had already spoken my name and planned a great future for me. The word “chosen,” in the original Greek language is eklego which is the compound of “ek” and “lego.” “Ek”means “out” and “lego” means “I say.” Literally, then, to be called chosen by God means to be “called out”. It means we are separated and set apart for the purposes of God. Eklego is used to portray the election or selection of individuals. It carries the idea of honor and privilege.

As we meditate on these thoughts today, I would like to share the picture God gave me when the Holy Spirit brought this verse alive to me. The words “focus of His love” continued to jump off the page each time I'd read the verse. I began to think of my recent experiences using a digital SLR camera to take photographs of my grandchildren. Some of my photos were too dark and lacked focus or were fuzzy around the edges. I had to remember what or who was to be my subject in order to get clear and focused pictures. Sometimes I had to adjust the settings in order to get the picture I desired. As I thought of looking through the lens at those beautiful grandchildren and how much I loved them, God spoke to my heart of His great love for me. His love so great, He looked out over the years to the time when I would be born and spoke my name and my purpose into existence. Long before I was even a picture on my parents' hearts, He made me the focus of His love.

God wants us to understand that He has had a picture of us in His heart since before the foundations of the world. In the Amplified Bible, verse 4 says “Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world....” I began to see God's decision to choose me was much like my decision to photograph my grandchildren. They have become the objects of my love and my heart is filled with great dreams and desires for their happiness, success and purposefulness. God's heart longs to see His purpose fulfilled in my life as He sees it through the lens of His love.

Every photographer has a shot he didn't expect through his own skill or expertise. It is not unusual to hear a photographer say, “I can't believe how great this turned out,” as if it was just happenstance. God has left nothing to chance. He has settled on us, focused His love on us and made a plan for our lives.

As we end today's lesson, I want you to imagine God is looking out through eternity through the lens of a camera. He has already adjusted all the settings to accommodate for any lies you have believed about yourself, any misconceptions about who you really are. Click! He snaps the picture and there before His eyes is a picture of perfection, a person made in His very own image, lacking nothing, complete in every way.

Have you ever uttered these words,”I don't like pictures of myself,” or “that is a horrible picture of me, just look at my hair, what I'm wearing”... and on and on we go. Can you make a choice today to accept this picture of you God has printed on His heart? Will you choose to believe He has chosen you personally from before He ever spoke one other part of creation into existence? Now, bring a picture to mind that you feel is one of the best representations of who you are, a picture you'd choose to put in the family album. Can we accept today that God's picture of us is more perfect than anything we can conceive—-the perfect photograph with no missing elements of light or color?

Today we focused on being “chosen” by the Creator God as the focus of His love. A continued lesson titled Why Am I Chosen? at http://www.aredeemedheart.com/.