Thursday, September 5, 2013

I Am Chosen

I am chosen
God's Hand is upon my life
I have a unique role appointed for me in God's plan
I am graced for my specific assignment
No one else can fill my role or take my place.

On my way from my hospital appointment last Tuesday, my husband was playing a CD of Bishop T. D. Jakes' sermon - You are chosen by God. The bit I heard of this sermon touched my heart and resounded in my spirit, and it confirmed the message I was preparing to share in today's post.

God Has A Plan For You:
For as long as you are here and not over there, God has a plan for your life and a purpose for you to fulfill. In His grand master-plan, which He foreordained before the foundation of earth was laid, God has a specific slot for you to occupy.

"…even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will…" - Eph. 1:4-5 (NIV).

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jer. 1:5 (NIV)

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" - Jer. 29:11 (NIV).

Without any fear of doubt or contradiction, I can say with boldness that you are not just here on earth aimless and without a purpose. God has a definite part for you to in His plan. He has a plan for my life and for your life.

Chosen And Prepared:

Having defined His grand plan, God identified the slot and place He wanted me to occupy, and He designed, created, and formed me to fill that position. He chose me specifically for a definite and unique assignment.
Unique. Each pearl bears the signature of the mother oyster.

I am God's handiwork (His workmanship), created in Christ Jesus that I may do the good works, which God has predestined (planned beforehand) for me (taking paths which He has prepared ahead of time) - Eph. 2:10.  I am chosen to do exploits for God. I am chosen to possess the land He has given to me for a possession.

I am chosen to be the wife that I am to my husband, and the mother I am to my sons. I was brought into his life for a specific purpose; to be a help meet for him, to be his one-woman-cheerleader. No one can take my place in his life or in the lives of my children. It is an only-me-can fulfill assignment, which I am honored to do.

My husband was specially prepared and chosen by God for me. God gave him the grace, resilience and inner strength to support, care for, cherish and bear me. No other person could have been to me what God has made him in my life. It is a calling.

While I was preparing for this post today, I stumbled on a post written by Audrey Joe-Ezigbo: "A Unique Piece Of God's Puzzle" and therein I found this quote from Bishop T. D. Jakes' book: "Life Overflowing" -

"We are chosen by God to be His precious children. We are wanted and valued by the Almighty King of the entire universe. God also chose you to be His child and to be part of the body of Christ on the earth at precisely this time and in precisely the location where you find yourself… With great determination, deliberation and design God has said, 'I want you. I’m going to use you for this particular job. I want your specific personality and your unique set of talents in this precise position at this significant time.'

The Lord has crafted you and formed you and shaped you. He has molded you and made you. He knows your strengths, your weaknesses, and your character, and He has caused you to be a perfect fit and a perfect tool for a very precise and important role in His plan. You have been chosen just as the cedars of Lebanon were selected one by one, for the building of Solomon’s temple."

"And he walks with me and he talks with me
And he tells me I am his own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known."
He Walks With Me (In The Garden) by C. Austin Miles.

I have to be me. Pruned and shaped by God with diverse experiences to fit into the slot He appointed for me so that His grand plan may be complete. If I resist His refining and pruning, I will not fit into the role He has assigned for me. If I try to be someone else, I will become a copy of another piece of the puzzle and I will not fit into my assigned position. God needs me to be uniquely me. He knows my strengths and weakness, and He is using them for His unique plan and purpose for my life. I gotta be me!!!

So it is not with pride that I say I am uniquely me, chosen by God for a purpose but it is with every sense of responsibility, humility and in awesome wonder of my Heavenly Father, Who loves me so much as to appoint and prepare me for His use and for service.

He is Alpha and Omega. Within Him all things exists. He created the eternal jigsaw puzzle. He knows where every single piece fits. He created, formed and shaped you, so He knows exactly where you fit in His eternal plan.

God Will Go Before Us:

It is encouraging and exciting to know that not only does God have a plan for our lives, not only has He chosen us for a specific purpose but He promised that He will go ahead of us into that purpose and destiny He appointed for us.

Twice within three days, I heard these words ministered to me from different sources: "God will go before thee" (Dayspring Devotional and Meetmeatthemeadows.com).

"It is the Lord Himself Who goes before you,
He will march/walk with you;
He will not fail you or abandon you or forsake you" - Deut. 31:8

I shared these words with my two sons who were starting new academic year in College and High School respectively. I asked them to keep the word in view and keep themselves reminded of it as they go through the school year. With this assurance, I am persuaded that they can defeat fear and discouragement whenever they rear their ugly heads.

What a blessed assurance to know that we are not left alone to walk the path He has appointed for us but we can be confident of His constant presence with us. He promised to walk with us through the fire and through raging waters (Is. 43:2).

Because we are chosen, we have to walk a specific path to prepare us for the assignment He has designed for us.

"He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way…
…I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him, He's always near.
I know that He is leading thro' all the stormy blast…"

The bottom line is that while we are still here on earth, God has a definite plan for our lives, it is for His grand purpose be fulfilled, for His glory to be put on display, for the gospel to be preached and for souls to be saved for His kingdom. It is not about us but it is about Him that we have been called to fulfill destiny.

You are carrying a calling of God upon your life whether you realize it or not. You are chosen to be the wife to that particular man because no one else can live with him and help him fulfill his calling but you. You have been chosen to be the husband to that special woman because no one else can nurture and cherish her the way God has ordained but you. God has available for you the grace to overcome in every situation and season that visits your marriage.

You have been specifically called to be the parents to that particular child, it may be difficult for now, but God is counting on you to be the best parents you can be to him/her. He has graced you with the strength and patience to reach that child if you tap into it. He is that situation with you.

In every situation God has placed us, He has a specific task and assignment for us to fulfill there. We must be very careful not to miss out on it, no matter how challenging and difficult the path we must walk to accomplish it.

You are uniquely you
No one else can take your place
God did not create two of you
You are not a duplicate
You can not do another person's assignment
Or fill another's role
Or walk someone else path.
You are created and chosen for a definite purpose
Walk in it and therein awaits you a glorious reward.

Pleased to share with you "He Walks With Me" sung by Anne Murray.

2 comments:

  1. Hello....Martha here... Thank you for sharing this very encouraging (& comforting) word...Esther 4:14b - And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom (Earth) for such a time as this.

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    1. Dear Martha, thanks for your visit and comments. God bless you richly. Indeed that's the question we ought to ask ourselves in every situation: "Who knows whether we are in this specific place, at this significant point in time for a specific purpose preordained by God."

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