Have we ever wondered whether we are the chosen ones?
We Christians, are so used to coming to church every Sunday and serving God in ministry, that sometimes we forget about our spiritual health. We prioritise the things on the outside, but we forget the most important thing is our relationship with God.
Okay, going back to the question, I definitely have wondered that many times during my journey as a Christian, and I’m sure you have too. But really, let’s take a step back and dissect this question together.
What are we chosen for?
This is a critical part of this question; without actually knowing, how can we properly understand and answer the question?
It says in 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness unto his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
We are a ‘chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession’. What does this mean? We are separated and set apart from the world. We are set apart to dedicate our lives to serve God, set apart to be loved by God, set apart to serve God, set apart to be owned by God. We are set apart for God.
We are chosen to dedicate our life to God and God only. Not for this world, and not for our own self-enjoyment, but only for God.
Do we know God on a personal level?
This question might seem like it does not relate to the main question, but this is a crucial question. We now know that we are chosen by God to dedicate our lives to Him, and Him only. But how can we dedicate our lives to God if we do not know Him?
When I say ‘relationship with God’ or ‘knowing God’, it does not mean only knowing God by knowledge (in your head), but also experiencing God in our daily lives – to walk with Him. Many of us Christians think we know God just because we go to church every week, but in reality, we do not know Him – we have not gained that personal level with Him, so we do not really know Him.
Now let me ask you a question, using an easy example. If you are going to marry someone and be with them until the end of your life, wouldn’t you want and even need to know them first to spend your life with them? That’s why we have dating; for knowing that person first before marrying them. If we spend time to know about a person just for marriage, shouldn’t we put more time and effort into knowing God? Because we are not just going to know God, but DEDICATE our life to God. Dedication is far more serious than marriage, because we will LIVE for that individual, and our whole life is FOR that individual. Without knowing the individual that we are dedicating our life to, of course we wouldn’t be sure if we are the chosen ones.
So where do we go from here?
- Pray to God for His Mercy
We need to pray to God to give us His mercy, for without God revealing Himself to us, we would not know Him.
- Build a relationship with God
We need to know God -what other ways can we build a relationship with God other than reading the Bible and praying to Him? We need to listen to His Word and meditate on it in our daily lives and not only that, but we need to include God in our everyday life, not just during Saturday and Sunday.
These first two steps are already hard enough, but with God given strength and His mercy, we will be able to go through this process. Something I want you to realise from this article, is that the question ‘Am I chosen or not’ is not as important compared to our relationship with God. We first need to worry about our relationship with God since, without a relationship with God, we cannot be the ‘chosen ones’. And without prayer and the Bible, we cannot have a relationship with God.
So pray and read the Bible with all your heart, because we, as humans, have been made to dedicate our lives to God.