Remember: You Are Chosen and Dearly Loved
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I can remember being a small child on the playground when we would play team games. Everyone would line up and two captains would begin switching off who they wanted on their teams. All of the kids hoped to be picked first, but everyone especially hoped not to be chosen last. I can remember the feeling when my name was called. I was chosen. I was wanted on the team. This captain thought their team would benefit from me being on it.
Bible hub shares that the Greek word in Colossians 3:12 is ēgapēmenoi, which means “beloved, to love, long for, etc.”
Maybe you have had many wonderful experiences of being loved well on this earth, but perhaps you have not had that story. Whatever your life has been like thus far, today, celebrate that the Lord loves you. When you accept His love, you become His beloved and His chosen son or daughter. Not only does He offer love, but He is love, so He offers Himself to us. His love is perfect and it casts out all of our fears.
When a husband and wife say yes to one another on their day of marriage, they enter into a covenant of their lives joining together. They leave their single selves behind and become one with their spouse. Just as the groom pursued his wife, proposed himself to her, and made a covenant with her, Jesus (our groom), pursued us by coming to earth, invited us to be His forever and made a covenant of His death and resurrection to be forever committed to us. We have to say yes to reap this benefit. God loves us well and He never forces His love upon us, He gently invites us to be His own. He makes us into the image of God. He reveals His plans for us. He values us and wants the best for us.
Has the enemy been telling you that you are unwanted and rejected? Have you been feeling down and insecure? Cling to Colossians 3:12 today. You are chosen, holy, and dearly loved.
However, the verse does not end here. Because we are chosen, holy, and dearly loved, we are commanded, “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” We have full access to the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. We can live out of a secure place of acceptance, calling, and identity in Christ. We can put on all of these attributes because Jesus first loved us and made it possible for us to live for Him. We not only get to experience His love for us, we get to be a part of sharing His love to others. We are gifted with His grace and His forever promise that we are His and He is ours.
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