By Debra Woody
It is easy to feel lost in this unpredictable world, to feel as if we are strangers, as if we do not belong. And, yet, we belong--God said so. John 15:19 reminds us, “As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” Nothing in this life is coinci-dental, random, nor by happenstance for God Is not a God Who works with-out a plan, and we are a part of His Plan. Every single piece of this life rests within The Hands of Our Heaven-ly Father. In the chaos and confusion, the selfish ambitions, and lost perspec-tives of our world, God’s Plan prevails. We are not in this place and time hap-hazardly floating through this life like stardust in the universe. God tells us in His Word: “even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He pre-destined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” Ephesians 1:4-5 ESV.
We were chosen—each and every human being—to belong, to live out God’s mission. That mission is simple and yet monumental, critical and a matter of life-and-death. God has Chosen us “in Him,” in Jesus, to fulfill His Will: touching the lives of others with The Love of Jesus, spreading The Gospel, living a “holy and blameless” life. Though we are flawed and imperfect, having been washed with Jesus’ Blood, we are made anew, counted as God’s Children! “See what great love The Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1 NIV
Therefore, we choose to serve because He chose to make us His, chose to make us a part of the precious family of faith. In this great gift, given at an invaluable and priceless cost—the life of Jesus—our responsibility, our calling is to call others, to choose to befriend those who do not know Him! Wherever we find ourselves in our daily tasks—at work, in our neighbor-hoods, in random (but nothing truly is) interactions—let us live so “that Our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the pleasure of His.