“WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN!”

 Isaiah 41:8-11                    (ESV)

    “[8] But you, Israel, MY servant,

        Jacob, “WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN”,

        the offspring of Abraham, MY friend; 

    [9] you whom I took from the ends of the earth,

        and called from its farthest corners,

    saying to you, “You are MY servant,

        I have chosen you and NOT CAST YOU OFF”; 

    [10] fear not, for I AM with you;

        be not dismayed, for I AM your GOD;

    I WILL strengthen you, I WILL help you,

        I WILL uphold you with my righteous right hand.

    [11] Behold, ALL WHO ARE INCENSED AGAINST YOU SHALL BE PUT TO SHAME AND CONFOUNDED;

    those who strive against you

        shall be as nothing and shall perish.”

A quote from Hannah Scott in the Kendrick Brothers 2019 “OVERCOMER” movie says “I am created by God. He designed me. So I'm not a mistake. His Son died for me, just so I could be forgiven. He picked me to be His own, SO I'M CHOSEN. He redeemed me, so I am wanted. He showed me Grace, just so I could be saved. He has a future for me, because He loves me!…”

Acknowledging that a person is a CREATION of the GOD WHO CREATED everything is a HUGE STEP in admitting we are NOT in control…of anything!!!  Being a survivor of a “massive brain hemorrhage” gives me a TOTALLY different perspective than I previously had.  For almost a month I had NO CONTROL over anything, even the air I was breathing!!  

Just like the character Hannah Scott realized in the movie OVERCOMER, because GOD had yet to OPEN my EYES, I “thought” I was in control?!?  That is until they put me in the coma a few days following the brain hemorrhage.  When I was brought out of the coma seventeen days later, my EYES were OPENED and I could SEE that I WAS NOT (and STILL am not!) in control of anything!!!

Jacob was a grandson of Abraham, who was a “friend of GOD”!  But that did NOT mean that Jacob/Israel was CHOSEN.  When ALMIGHTY GOD called him by name in Isaiah 41:18 and said that he was “WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN”, he had to have known then?!?  The “assurances” in the verses that followed were VERY REVEALING about what GOD was going to do for HIS CHOSEN.  “WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN” has to be a GRAND and GLORIOUS experience!!!  When YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW!!!