“I CHOSE YOU!”

John 15:16                                          (ESV)

“You did not CHOOSE ME, but “I CHOSE YOU” and APPOINTED you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the FATHER in MY name, HE may give it to you.”

John 6:44                                            (ESV)

“No one can come to ME unless the FATHER WHO sent ME draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”

Perhaps we should be praying for ALMIGHTY GOD to “CHOOSE” a few more people rather than for “them” to start living and acting right??? As I continue to grow in THE LORD, I become more and more humbled that our CREATOR selected me before the foundations of the world to be used as a part of HIS APPOINTED.  ALMIGHTY GOD MUST call them for there to be a HEART TRANSFORMATION, a TRUE “changing of the guard”!  

We should always remember that nobody CHOOSES to become a Believer.  ALMIGHTY GOD, and ONLY HIM, does!  Preachers can’t “save” you.  Sunday School teachers can’t “save” you.  In the ninth chapter of Acts, Saul was on his way to persecute members of ‘the Way’.  In verses three through six, Scripture records “Now as he (Saul) went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.  And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  And he said, "WHO are YOU, LORD?" And HE said, "I am JESUS, WHOM you are persecuting.  But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."  Saul’s heart was changed, and likewise his name was changed to Paul.  There was more “evidence”, like his actions following his encounter with JESUS.  

Now I probably wouldn’t have been one who would have been praying for Saul, as he was known to be a HUGE thorn in the side of “the Way”.  But JESUS had a Plan as HE told Ananias in Acts 9:15 “..."Go, for he is a CHOSEN instrument of MINE to carry MY name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”  Who would have thought that a persecutor of “the Way” would be CHOSEN to be used by GOD?  

Our desires to see others change for HIS Glory is NOT enough.  We can (and have) built the most ornate structures known to man, only to see them close to empty when Worship is scheduled.  Unless, and until, we recognize that we are only part of “the Way” because “I CHOSE YOU”, hearts will NOT be changed.  We Believers are NOT better than the lost, “I CHOSE YOU” is the ONLY reason we have HOPE!!!