My husband, Andy, has two older siblings. They are 11 and 13 years older than him, so it was a very long time before Andy came along. One of the things that Andy often says is, “I was not an afterthought, I was a no-thought!” His parents didn’t even think about having another child; Andy was a big surprise, with no thought given.
The wonderful thing about Ephesians 1:4a is that it tells us: “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” You are definitely not an afterthought or even a no-thought! God thought of you long before He hung one star in place. He chose you before He created a galaxy or a planet. Our Abba Father thought of you before He made a giraffe, breathed life into Adam, or said, “Let there be light!” He was thinking about you! Doesn’t that boggle your mind?! It certainly blows mine.
Charles Spurgeon says this about being chosen – “If God hadn’t chosen me before the foundation of the world, He wouldn’t choose me now!” How true is that! When I think back upon my life, the bad choices I made, the rebellion I lived in, the fact that God chose me at all is astonishing. Being chosen by God is not something that should make us proud; it should humble us, make us stand before the LORD in wonder. David praised our glorious God in this way, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”
There was a reason that God chose you and me. He chose us so “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,” Ephesians 1:4b. We couldn’t have chosen ourselves, and we can’t become holy and blameless without Jesus. Being holy means that we are to love what God loves and hate what God hates. So much out there in the world tells us to strive after ‘happiness,’ but God tells us to seek ‘holiness.’ Happiness is based on our circumstances and what happens to us during the day, but holiness is based on God and on becoming more Christ-like. Vance Havner quotes, “God saved us to make us holy, not happy!”
Aren’t you thankful for the blood of Jesus? “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10. Through the body and blood of Jesus, we have been made holy, as though we have never sinned. There is no other way. Because of the love of God in sending His only Son, we have been made holy. We are chosen, and that before the beginning of time. Never an after-thought or a no-thought. Hand-picked by God and for God. Oh, what a precious gift!
Reflections
- In what way does knowing that the Father chose you ‘before the foundation of the world’ change the way you view your value, identity, and purpose?
- Where do you tend to seek happiness over holiness in your daily life, and what might it look like to align those areas with God’s call to be holy?
- When you reflect on your past, your choices, and perhaps bad decisions, and the LORD’s continued grace, how does that deepen your humility and thankfulness for being chosen in Christ?
Step-by-Step
Spend a few moments praising the Father for choosing you and making you holy through His Son, Jesus. Ask Him to reveal a practical way that you can pursue holiness over comfort this week, and take that step in faith.
Claire's Prayer 