“I CHOSE YOU!”

 John 15:15                   (ESV)

“15 No longer do I (JESUS) call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I HAVE CALLED YOU FRIENDS, for all that I have heard from MY FATHER I have made known to you.

16 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.”

Growing up I was taught to respect my elders, which to me meant that I almost feared those who were older.  The saying “Children should be seen and not heard” was used sparingly, but my understanding was that “you can’t learn anything with an open mouth”!  That didn’t prevent my mouth from occasionally working overtime.  Spewing whatever came through my mind usually had NO FILTER, which caused many embarrassing problems!  Why others endured such is a mystery to me, but I am grateful that GRACE abounded!

In the same thought line, THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES tells me in John 15:15-16 that “I CHOSE YOU” to reflect MY LOVE, MERCY and GRACE to a world that is unable to SEE!  “This world” thinks that humans attain success simply because some are smarter than others?  Romans 9:14-18 says GOD will have mercy on whom HE chooses, and HE also hardened Pharaoh’s heart causing the Egyptian army to die at the Red Sea!  

Why do I qualify for “I CHOSE YOU”?  Titus 3:5 says “HE saved us, NOT BECAUSE OF WORKS DONE BY US in righteousness, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS OWN MERCY, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the HOLY SPIRIT,”!  When we SEE that the very breath we breathe is a GIFT from GOD, maybe we are beginning to have our EYES OPENED to SEE TRUTH?  The ONLY reason why we can do anything is because “I CHOSE YOU “!!!

Who has GOD BLESSED more, children of billionaires who have unimaginable worldly possessions, or the orphan in the most uncivilized portion of the world?  GOD can CHANGE a beggar into royalty.  HE can cause the billionaire to die with cancer.  To know that “I CHOSE YOU” is worth more than anything this world can offer!  Whatever GOD has planned for me, just knowing that “I CHOSE YOU” makes this TEMPORARY (2 Corinthians 4:17) affliction seem small compared to the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison!  I need to have on the forefront of my mind that “I CHOSE YOU”!!!