You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
John 15:16
Without going into an argument about predestination, I want to talk about this verse in John 15. Jesus says that we didn’t choose him, but that he chose and appointed us. Sometimes we make it out more as if Jesus was just waiting around for us to show up and we chose him out of our own judgment and goodness. In truth, our faith itself is a gift from God. We were chosen before any of us even existed to be God’s sons and daughters through Christ. If you’re a believer, then that means that God chose you, not the other way around.
While that may cause a little bit of a crisis of free will for some people, in reality it is an incredible blessing. To know that you have been chosen before you were ever born, while it does mean that it wasn’t your own doing that made you a child of God, also means that none of the bad things you have done or will do disqualify you from being a child of God. He chose you regardless. He knew that you would be a sinner, but he chose you. Before you ever chose him, He wanted a relationship with you.
What’s even better is that in the gospels, Jesus says that all whom God has chosen will come to the Father through Jesus, and of all of those whom God has chosen, Christ will not lose any. We can be assured of our salvation through the words of Christ saying that it wasn’t our choice or our work that earned us salvation, but instead it was God’s own choice. And if it was God who chose to save you, who chose to make you his own child, who chose to love you despite every failure, then what do we have to fear? What doubt can we have? God himself hand-picked and prepared us to be his sons and daughters, to live eternally with him. There can be no better news than that!
Prayer:
Father,
Thank you for choosing me. Thank you that it wasn’t up to me to secure my own salvation but that you chose me for adoption as your son before I was ever even born. Forgive me of the ways I have failed, and lead me to everlasting life with you.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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