Chosen

Ladies, do you understand the epicness of being chosen in Christ? Of being a daughter of the Most High King? Of being loved so much that God, the creator of the universe, desires to have an intimate relationship with you? That He cares so much that He wants to spend time with you, to overflow you with His presence and character of who He is, in order to transform you to His image? God is love, and that immense love that surpasses understanding is for you! He adores you and cares about the details in your life. This is so important for us to not only understand but also to believe it!

Involved in being chosen is understanding that your heavenly Father has plans for you. He didn’t just make you and choose you for nothing. He designed you uniquely to walk in His plans for you. To accomplish certain tasks for Him, to die to yourself and happily be transformed into Christ’s image. Without transformation we cannot walk in the fullness of the plans God has for us. We can either choose frustration and disobedience or we can choose to fully surrender and hand it all to God, and that’s when you start to realize His epic goodness! That His plans for you are actually your greatest desires, you just didn’t know it. That He knows you better than you know yourself, and therefore surrendering to His desires for you actually ends up fulfilling your greatest desires! I think that is one of the greatest realizations I have had of God’s love and kindness. I walked around for a while thinking that if I wanted to do something, it must not have been from God. But as I have grown in intimacy with the Lord I have realized that a lot of the things He asks you to do, you will actually enjoy and have fun doing! Will it always be? Of course not, but then sometimes it is and I just can’t help but be giddy over His epic love and goodness!

So how do you come to know the things He desires for you to do? Scripture gives us the big picture and the overall guidelines for a life following Christ, but I am talking about the details. Who does He want you to marry? Where should you go to school? Should you stay home with the kids? Should you move? Should you start that ministry? The specific things that are in His plans for your unique life. 

The way to know these specifics all comes down to your time in the secret place. Your intimate, personal time with the Lord. When you shut everything out, put your focus on Him, and worship, pray and just be with Him. That is the only way to know His plans for your life! If you are saying to yourself, yeah that’s great, I don’t have time for that. Then I want to ask you, do you receive anything from the other relationships in your life that you don’t have time for? If you do not have time for the Lord, then you cannot expect Him to show up in your life! Scripture makes it clear: when you seek the Lord with all your heart, then you will find Him! Not when you finally remembered to open your bible but then got distracted and ended up on IG instead. We must set ourselves apart, fully devote ourselves to His kingdom, separate ourselves from the world, and put Him first above all! That is when life truly begins! There is absolutely nothing in this world that compares to intimacy with the Lord! I cannot encourage you enough to start this if you do not already. If you do, then continue! Do not let distraction or busyness slip in. Keep it a priority.

Then there are the general guidelines, if you will, for followers of Christ. Being wives and moms, we have guidelines for those roles that are expected of us. Our culture has worked hard to belittle those roles for decades, but we must renew our minds to focus on the truth.The truth of the matter is that our families are very important. Families are a huge part of God’s plan for humankind, a way for Him to strengthen us, nurture us, mold us, provide joy and happiness for us! Families should be one of our highest priorities in our lives, not status, not money, not career. None of that matters in the end. What matters is our relationships, the things we have passed down to our children, the time spent loving and nurturing our families. 

For all of us wives, I can tell you that the Lord desires you to prioritize your husband, to love and respect Him, to support him in his needs and encourage him all his days. For us moms, the Lord desires you to love and nurture your kids. To prioritize their upbringing, to spend time teaching them how to live a righteous life, how to have a relationship with the Lord, how to love others. The Lord has blessed us with our families, they are the greatest blessings! The least we could do is give them our best in return, to prioritize them in our lives and thank God for the blessings that they are!

The last part we touched on this week in relation to being chosen in Christ; is that when you are chosen, you become a target for the enemy. The enemies goal is to weaken the church, sneak lies in that turn us from the truth, turn us from God’s love and goodness. We must recognize that when we are saved by Christ, when we surrender all, we also in that instant join a war. A war in which we are already victorious, but we must anticipate the arrows of the evil one and be on guard against them. One of his greatest tools is planting lies into our thinking. It is so important we are in scripture everyday renewing our minds and filling us with the truth of God’s word. We also must be in communication with God asking Him to reveal any lies that we are believing. Ask Him to show us the truth, to show us who we are in Him. Because when we are believing lies about us that the enemy has snuck in, then that stops us from walking fully into what God has planned for us to do. The truth can only come from God. He is our creator, He is the only one who knows everything about us, truthfully. The only one who knows our full potential. The only one who knows the goodness He has planned for us. So, it is imperative we stay on top of the things we are filling our minds with, and stay in constant communion with God so He can reveal any lies that seep into our thinking. 

Ladies, there is so much beauty in being chosen. So much love. So much potential. It is so epic that it is hard for me to wrap my head around. I encourage you to spend time with our heavenly Father, asking Him what it means to be chosen. What it means to be part of His family. And just sit in that revelation! Sit in the freedom, the beauty, the wonder of what it means. It will be worth every minute!