Day #15

Your dream of opening a café is close to becoming a reality and your excitement is palpable. You have done your research on what other cafes you may be competing against in your area, what their fit-outs and furnishings are like, and what they have on their menus, and now determined what your café will look like, including the staff you want, and the products you will serve.
You have found the ideal building and location and have signed the lease. Now begins the process of choosing the builder to do the fit-out, choosing the furnishings and equipment, choosing the coffee and food supplies and choosing the staff. You meet with the builder who was recommended to you only to find that the examples of his work that he showed you were very sub-standard. It was the same with the person showing you their furniture and catering equipment. It was poor quality and some seemed old and faulty.
You then began the process of choosing your staff, only to find that everyone who applied had no experience and turned up for their interview looking scruffy, unprepared and late. To top off this disappointment, the potential food supplier’s samples were bruised, spoiled or close to their ‘use by date’. You wouldn’t choose any of it. How disheartened you would feel as nothing and nobody was up to the standard you needed to see your dream realised.
Aren’t you glad that our God doesn’t make His choices the way we do? He chose you and I with all our flaws, our shortcomings, our failures, and our lack of qualifications.
When Jesus chose His disciples I wonder how they would have felt when He said these powerful words to them in John 15:16a: “You did not choose me. I chose you.’
Our perfect Saviour picked some of the most imperfect people to be part of His team: Peter (a hothead), Thomas (a doubter), and Matthew (a despised tax collector). Most of the disciples came from lowly, insignificant backgrounds. They were flawed, unrefined and unqualified. They were often overlooked, yet Jesus saw them as they were and chose them anyway.
We read in scripture about many others, and everyone who knew them, or knew about them, would see them as flawed and unworthy of doing anything of significance, however, God ‘chose’ them for great purposes. Moses fled Egypt a murderer and spent 40 years in the desert tending his father-in-law’s sheep, however, he was then ‘chose’ by God to go back to Egypt, as the one to lead the Children of Israel out of their bondage.
In the Book of Acts we read of Saul, who persecuted Christians and went everywhere with the intent of destroying the church. He certainly wouldn’t be our first, or even last choice as one that would champion and grow the church, however, Jesus ‘chose’ Saul, who became Paul, as an ‘apostle to the gentiles’, and one who wrote a substantial part of the New Testament.
The good news is that you too are chosen, you are declared holy, you are dearly loved and set apart. You are chosen for good works. God has a specific plan for you to impact the world positively. You are chosen to broadcast God’s glorious wonders throughout the world. God loved you so much that He sent His son Jesus as a sacrifice to rescue you from darkness and give you eternal life. God CHOSE you on purpose, for a significant purpose. As with the disciples, as with Moses, as with the Apostle Paul, God sees you, and He chooses you!
As you read, and maybe reread the scriptures in this devotion, be encouraged that you are incredibly loved by God, you are significant, you have been called, you have been set apart, and commissioned for great purpose. You are chosen.
Scripture Reading
Colossians 3:12 [ERV]
Ephesians 2:10 [NIV]
1 Peter 2:9 [TPT]
John 3:16 [NLT]
Romans 8:28,29 [CEV]
Reflection Prompts
When you think about the choosing of the disciples, Moses and Paul, what does that tell you about how God sees people - how He sees you?
How has your perspective changed knowing that when God chooses you, He is not looking at your background, your flaws or your qualifications?