I had been a Christian for some time before I learned the truth.  I had not chosen Christ. Instead, He chose me. For a girl who had never been asked to a school dance, and was among the last ones picked for any kind of “team”, let me tell you…this was big news.

The enemy had set up some nice strongholds in me from a very young age, and my own worthlessness was the lie I lived with, and lived out.  The majority of my choices were made from the belief that I had very little value.

So the sadness of it all is not that I was never chosen, but that I never felt worth choosing.  

And then one day, God gave me a vision, and it led me into a season of transformation that dismantled the lie the enemy had worked so hard to build into me.

            I walked into a large ballroom, filled with people. They were beautiful people, especially the women. They were all much taller than me, dressed for a ball, hair done to perfection. They all looked like porcelain dolls. I, on the other hand, looked very much like a street urchin. Small and dirty. Dressed in what looked like something made of burlap, and no shoes.

            The beautiful people were all gathered around something, or someone, and I was in the back of the crowd unable to see what they were looking at. Then, the crowd began to separate, and I saw the object of their attention. There, on a throne, sat the most handsome of princes. He was smiling, and most amazingly, looking right at me. My head dropped in shame, assuming He would question how I got in and why on earth I was there, among the beautiful ones. Suddenly, he pointed at me and said , “I choose you.” 

I call it my Cinderella story. Even as I write it here, I can feel the emotion I had when God gave me the vision. It was so deeply personal because God had painted a picture of exactly how I felt as a new Christian, and I was overwhelmed by the fact that He knew it. He knew how unworthy and out of place I felt around other Christians, even though I was working hard to hide it. And He set me free by renewing my mind with His word.

” For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love  He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—” Ephesians 1:4-5

I wasn’t chosen as an afterthought. The choice was made before He ever spoke the foundations of the world into existence.  Nor was it a reluctant choice. It brought Him pleasure to choose me, and it was exactly the choice He wanted to make.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”  1Peter 2:9

I am not a street urchin who happened into God’s Kingdom. I am the chosen, special possession of God.

 He called me out of darkness.  He called me. On purpose. So that I could make much of Him, declaring His goodness and His majesty to a lost world.

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?”  Romans 8:31-33

Who is it that beats me up the most? Who chastises me, tells me that I’m not good enough, tells me that I’m a failure, that I don’t measure up? Who tells me that I don’t belong, that I don’t fit in? Who is it that brings a charge against me the most, and tells me that God is against me? Me. Oh, I know what you may be thinking. Those are the lies of the enemy. Absolutely.

Satan may be the one talking, but I’m the one believing him. 

 His talking isn’t the problem. The problem is that God’s people believe what he has to say.  And then we begin to repeat it, to ourselves and to others.

This time I choose. I choose to stand on God’s word and believe that I am His choice, and that choosing me brought Him pleasure. I am not an urchin among the beautiful, I am royalty among royalty.  I am not worthless, I am His special possession.  I am His, not be default, but by choice. His choice.

And finally…

“They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with Him will be His called, chosen and faithful followers.” Revelation 17:13-15

I have been chosen for something magnificent!