Chosen With Joy

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deuteronomy 7:6

Each of us may well remember the selection of teams for a recess game. Selected among the first and you reveled in the glory! Selected last and it felt far from being chosen. It wasn’t that they wanted you as much as they HAD to pick you. At the start of the process the names were called with speed, excitement, and anticipation. As the choices progressed the calling out of names was slower with expressions of dread and a “have to” mentality. How sad that what should have been a simple playground game became a harsh lesson of acceptance and rejection. I cannot think of anyone who does not desire to be chosen, wanted, accepted, and valued.

Why do I choose, want, accept, and value the people in my life? It think of friends I want and it is usually initially based on how they make me feel when I am in their presence. It is out of a need that I have and that they can fulfill. Oh, the joy when the feelings are mutual and the heartache when they are not.

This morning, I am seeing God’s selections in Scripture. As His child, I can claim any verse that says He has chosen me. I am His object of choice and divine favor. I am selected for favor and special privilege. He sees me as a special treasure. A person of worth and value. One who is esteemed as rare and precious. There is joy in His voice as He calls me by name and says “you are Mine!”

Think of the people you highly treasure. They are on your mind and in your hearts often. You enjoy spending time with them. To think, the God of the universe feels that way about each of us. His thoughts toward us are beyond counting. They are too many! He delights when we just want to spend time with Him.

To be joyfully chosen, fully accepted, fully loved, fully valued, highly treasured, and wanted by the Creator is filling me with much emotion. I marvel at it and I accept it with joy! It is in His choosing of me that I am ready, willing, and able to choose Him.

Father, I will never fully understand Your choice of me but I take great pleasure in it. I choose You as well! Amen.