![[Photo of a Scripture verse]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/Ephesians_1_4-5.jpg)
| “For he (God) chose us in him (Jesus) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” |
| —Ephesians 1:4-5 |
Do you like to be chosen? I imagine that you do. When you were in Elementary School and the teacher organized your class into two teams to play some game, did you stand there hoping that you would be chosen early in the process rather than become the last person picked? Or maybe, you hoped that you would be chosen to be on the same team as someone you admired. We all like to be chosen.
In our relationship with God, one of the most blessed elements is that He has chosen us before the foundation of the earth to belong to Himself. We cannot fully comprehend this fact because we know that there is nothing inherently worthy about us that would prompt God to choose us. We are stained by the sin nature of Adam and have compounded our natural sinfulness by committing all manner of sins on our own. Why would a holy God choose us?
But, the fact remains that God did choose us. And, in due season, God sent His blessed Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes to the fact that God had chosen us and had made provision for the forgiveness of our sins through the suffering, death, and resurrection of His one and only Son, Jesus.
Notice how the Apostle Paul affirms this truth as he writes to the Christians gathered at Ephesus, found in Ephesians 1:4-5:
For he (God) chose us in him (Jesus) before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
This side of eternity, we will never understand why God chose us to belong to Himself. But, as we begin this new day, we can celebrate with worship and praise the reality that we are God’s chosen ones. In fact, God has grafted us into the line of His original chosen people, Israel, that we might become one flourishing blooming branch that testifies to God’s mercy, grace, and unfailing love.
