Chosen and Loving It

Deuteronomy 7:7 The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: God doesn't choose the way we choose. Can you remember playing backyard football when you were a kid? Usually, the best players would choose teams, and they would choose their teammates until there was only one left. That last player didn't really get chosen, he just went to the team that had the last pick. No one wanted to be picked last, because everyone else was chosen but you.......ouch! If God chose people in this manner, I wouldn't be a team captain, and might not get picked at all! But God doesn't choose the way that we choose. God operates on the basis of covenant. He set His love upon, and chose this wandering bunch of complainers in the desert because He made a covenant with Abraham. He wasn't going to break His Word. They weren't chosen because of their number, or their might, but because of God's faithfulness to keep His promises. That gives us hope, because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has brought into existence a new covenant. This covenant is simply stated in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." As believers in Jesus Christ, we are not chosen because of our number, or might, but our God has set His love upon us and chosen us because we have believed in His Son for salvation. We now stand as trophies of grace. People who should have been picked last, but instead He has "made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). I am chosen and loving it!