We’re in part 3 of a word of encouragement from the Lord for those of us bold enough to admit we’re insecure. God has a Secure place for us. We learned in Part 1 that we can each declare that “I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love ; For Bringing Me Home and For Accepting Me As I Was.”

For Choosing Me to Love

Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

There is something so satisfying about being selected; someone choosing you for a special recognition or honor. The thing that makes your selection even more incredible is the selection source. Obviously, the bigger, more powerful, more recognizable and well known the organization or person is that selected you the more amazing the recognition becomes.

Back in my youthful days, I was selected by an organization called “Big Brothers/Big Sisters” of the National Capital Region as their Big Brother of the year. It was an incredible honor and one I cherish to this day. It was special, because they choose me out of a very large number of volunteers, the organization was Nationally known and it had significant resources and respect around the country.

So much so that a few months later I was chosen by the President of the United States, George W. Bush, to be on his panel of mentors for his international mentoring initiative. The President was known Worldwide, much more than the DMV area. He was much more powerful, with many more resources; an his position as President garnered respect across the Globe and that was who chose me. Wow

So now imagine what this means, we are now:

1. Known: He chose us. The He in this text is simple; the God of the Universe. No one is more well known; more powerful; more respected. There is a trending term “I Am Him,” which means that this person is as dominant figure. Well, God is the originator; he told Moses “I AM WHO I AM.” The original “I Am Him,” chose us. Each one of you reading this post, regardless of who you are, where you’re from, what you’ve done He chose us. He chose us because He knew us (Jer 1:5); and contrary to our own beliefs, God knows us and even knowing everything about us He still chose us (Ps 139).

2. Family: in Him. When I got married, I chose my Wife to become a member of my entire family. Not only did I have to trust her with my heart but also with those who were the very closest to me. My wife inevitably was making the same decision for her and her family. Here we have the Almighty God; maker of Heaven and Earth deciding that we are special enough to trust us with His heart (not knowing that He would ultimately give us His heart) and to trust us with His family (You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself). Our neighbors are God’s family and He trust us to treat them with love and respect.

3. In His Timing: before the foundation of the world. God decided to choose us well before we could ever choose him (Jer 1:5). We were not even a twinkle in our parents eyes (always thought that was a corny saying), when God made up His mind to send Jesus to take on our Sin. Because of His timing we can see that God knew everything about us and what our lives would be; so we can realize the God has always loved us. He decided long long ago that we were worthy of His love; and worth giving the one He loved the most to ensure we could experience His most precious LOVE. That is pretty special!!

4. Holy In His Presence: that we should be holy and without blame before Him. We’ve been made Holy; spotless and without Blame. In His presence, we are full of Joy (Ps 16:11), rest (Matt 11:28), peace (Phil 4:6-7) and protection (Ps 91). There are a ton of benefits from being in the Lord’s presence, here we learn that in His presence we are without blame. This is because of what Jesus did on the cross. He took on our Sin and exchanged it for His Righteousness. His Righteousness; because of Christ sacrifice on the cross; He has presented us to God faultless (Jude 1:24). Therefore, in God’s presence we are holy and without blame.

5. Loved: in love. The entire foundation of our identity and our security is found in love. In the Love of God for this world (Jn 3:16-17); God’s Love for His Son (Jn 15:9) ; Jesus’ Love for Us (1 John 4:9-10) and Our love for Ourselves (Matthew 22:39). This verse tells us that we are Chosen; as Family; in His presence and in His timing all based in love. God Loves Jesus soooo much (Jn 3:35; 5:20); He gives Him all things and all of Himself. God Loves this World, so much that He sent Jesus to die for it (Jn 3:16-17). in love, We are able to learn ourselves and love what God loves about us; Ps 139:17-18 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

God fully knows you; His love for you is special and abundant. So much so, that He chose you as His love interest, He brought you into His family. He has plans for you in His timing and desires that you be in His presence….and it’s all done in LOVE.