Chosen

As part of Christian Writer's Blog Chain, this month's topic is " Celebrate" I hope you enjoy!

Growing up I always dreaded playing sports. It's not that I didn't like sports or playing games, but those with the best skills were snatched up first, everyone wants to be picked to play on the winning team. I don't know about you, truthfully I never had much confidence in my abilities and as name after name was called, my anxiety grew. No one wanted to be the last called, otherwise known as the “Mercy Pick.”

It should be comforting to know that God chose us first, before the foundations of the earth. It was not based on our performance, but His love for us (John 15:16). Every single hair is counted (Matthew 10:30). Every day is numbered. He knew everything we would do before a single day had passed (Psalms 139:16). Still He chose us to play on His team.

When we think of all those great hero’s of faith that have gone before, we may not feel as if our life could possibly mean as much, but in deed it does. We have the benefit of hindsight as historians recant the tale of their lives within a few pages, but they lived and breathed as we.

Those hero's experienced the same uncertainty, hardship, betrayal, trials and victories that we do in our daily lives, yet we consider the steps they took as brilliant or somehow knowing they would succeed, yet they had no more insight than we, they just walked by faith trusting the Lord for the outcome.

The Lord has called each of us to be on His team, not based on our abilities but on our faith in Him. “For when we are weak” surrounded by flesh, “then we are strong”, built in faith (2 Corinthians 12: 8-10).

The Lord takes a great amount of pleasure in blessing us. So let us celebrate being surrounded in God's love and strengthened by the courage that we have been picked first!

Boundaries of Self

The most limiting boundary that challenges our growth is the self-imposed one. When we speak these words, “Never” and “Can’t” we've informed our subconscious mind to avoid seeking these things. Effectively saying they are harmful to our well-being.

Our subconscious is a type of guidance system which seeks to attain those things we say are good for us or things we want. The subconscious never sleeps, but works silently on our behalf to help us reach our goal. It does not differentiate between good or evil, but thought patterns can be changed. To test this theory, think about all the things you used to like or do, but changed your mind. What event happened to cause this change? Was it a positive or negative experience?

How wonderfully we are made! The subconscious is truly our friend as we fill our minds with the Word of God, it transforms our sinful thoughts into godly goals. Paul wrote, “Those who are dominated by their sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit” (Romans 8:5 NLT)

When we say “No” to God, we say “Yes” to something else, usually self-serving pleasure. If we truly understand the great gift we have been given through Christ, we should always say “Yes Lord, speak your servant is listening”

Sometimes we get wrong ideas in our minds about what God is like and what we should be doing. Without careful guidance from God’s Word we sometimes can be fed a bunch of religious doctrines that are focused more on our behavior and actions rather than loving Christ and loving people. If we are wise, we will feed only on the Word of God.

“Crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, just as a baby cries out for milk” (1 Peter 2:2NLT).