You Are Chosen

The You Are Series

You are chosen

I so clearly remember being in PE when I was little. They would put us all in a big group and then the “team captains” would take turns choosing who they wanted on their team. I was super lucky when the team captain was one of my best friends, we would kind of wink at each other and I knew I would be chosen for their team quickly. But, when it wasn’t one of my besties, my lack of hand eye coordination often left me standing with the last couple of people in the group, heart racing, hoping I would be chosen before I was the last one and someone got stuck with me on their team. It was a terrible feeling. I know. You are all feeling sad for me right now. It’s fine, I was in high demand for group projects. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

But, I want to talk about that feeling for a second. That longing to be chosen. That fear of being the last one in the group. The fear of ending up on a team where you are “unwanted”. It’s not a feeling that ends after 2nd grade PE is over. It’s a lifelong struggle built into us as humans. We are made to be chosen. To be placed on a team where we are valued and needed. It gives us purpose and makes us feel loved.

We spend so much of our lives striving to be chosen.

We fight to be chosen for teams, for our dream jobs, by boys we like, by “the right” friend groups. We want to be chosen by people and accepted. We want to be needed and wanted. I know that I spent so much time trying to be chosen. We all do. We strive for that feeling.

Photo by Simon Maage on Unsplash

But here is what I’ve learned. We’ve already been chosen. We were chosen from the very beginning of time. God chose us over and over again before we were even born. I’m always mind blown when I read the old testament and I start to realize that everything God was doing was in preparation for our salvation. From the second Adam and Eve left the Garden God started paving the way for us to have freedom and eternity with Him. He was shaping the world and making way for His Son. Making way for our salvation. Choosing to love us when we continued not to choose Him back. He chose to love us before we were ever born.

One of my favorite verses ever, Psalm 138:16, says “and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” So, before you were born God knew you. He knew all of your days and the life He had planned for you and He CHOSE you. He chose to save you, to love you, to redeem you, and to never let you go all the days of your life.

Here’s another of my favorites: But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
1 Peter 2:9 -

You are chosen by God. How much sweeter to have been chosen by God than to have been chosen by this world. He calls you His. He has placed you on the winning team and He has given everything to call you His.

There is no need to strive for acceptance, or to be chosen. You are already there, and it is by a love so much greater than we can ever imagine. How much sweeter to have been chosen by God than anything this world has to offer?

Love love love you all,

Sarah Paige xoxo