Chosen and Redeemed: Chosen in Christ

 

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love  Ephesians 1:4

 Do you ever feel like you’ve messed things up beyond recovery? Do you feel like there is hope for others, but not for you because of how bad things have gotten? Does the situation you’re in seem hopeless? The pain unending, the diagnoses one after the other worse and worse? Is it not just up to you, everyone around you seems to be against you? I have really good news for you today. God knew every aspect of everything you’re facing today and already worked out a plan to deal with it – before the beginning of the world!

 That’s right, before He spoke the words, “Let there be light,” (Genesis 1:3) he already knew the names, faces, and hearts of every soul that would inhabit the earth. He already knew what we would be like, how we would react to situations, and if we would be open to loving Him. He knew that we, as humanity, would turn against His only Son, Jesus, and nail Him to a horrible cross. He knew that we, as humanity, would turn against Him in a myriad of other ways as well. And yet He loved us so much anyways that He went to great lengths to orchestrate a plan to bring us into relationship with Himself. He knew that two people would have to meet at a certain stage in each of their lives and have a certain conversation that would lead to one or both of them acknowledging that what they needed in life was God. He played the long game, and because of it, He had won before it even started.

 That’s the good news here. If God could see through time and space over thousands and tens of thousands of years to know every person and every situation that would come up and arrange them in such a way to accomplish His perfect plan, no “impossible” situation you face is too much for Him (Matthew 19:26, Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 1:37).

 I need this reminder today. I need this reminder on a lot of days. I woke up this morning hurting quite a bit. No, it wasn’t the worst pain I’ve faced, but it’s been going on for so long, and we’ve exhausted so many treatments without improvement, that it feels like it’s forever. It feels like it will only get worse and I don’t know how I’ll live with it. I don’t know how to hold up under the constant ache, the sharp, stabbing, the pulsing throbbing constantness of it all. The only treatments left to my doctor’s disposal are radical ones that could make things so much worse, and with my history I almost feel like that’s a foregone conclusion, so I’m not eager to embark on them. In fact, I haven’t even made the call I was supposed to after my appointment weeks ago. But here’s what keeps me from tipping over the edge of deep, dark depression – it’s not impossible for God. It is neither impossible for Him to heal me completely and remove my pain nor for Him to be with me and help me through what I feel like I cannot endure. And the truth is, no matter which of these – or the phantom option C that I haven’t even considered – He chooses, He is still good, and He is still God. He is still in control. He has a plan and a purpose for it that I cannot imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

Here's the Thing: Maybe He has me here to teach me to be dependent upon Him and not myself or modern technology or medicine, that has done pretty much nothing good for me. Maybe He has me here for someone else. Maybe He has me here for you. If so, it’s worth it.