The Way God Chooses

The Way God Chooses

The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the LORD loves you.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

You didn’t choose me. I chose you.

John 15:16

God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.

Romans 9:11-12

“Pick me, pick me!” All of us know what it is like to want to be chosen—for the team, as a dance partner, as a friend, as a mate—and in many other ways. We put our best foot forward and talk up our good qualities, sometimes even show off.

How does God choose the people he will use for his purposes in the world? Well, we know he doesn’t choose the way we choose. Remember that when he was looking for a king for Israel, he passed on the strong, good-looking sons of Jesse. “The LORD said to Samuel, ‘Don’t judge by his appearance or height. . . . The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart’ ”(1 Samuel 16:7). God does not choose based on talent or looks or family background. God chooses as he desires, and his choosing does not always make sense to us. We don’t understand why he chooses someone we see as less gifted or less qualified to fill a particular role and passes over someone who seems just right to us. God turns our system of evaluating people upside down.

That’s why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 1:26-27, “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.”

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What things do you consider when you are choosing teammates or friends?

Think through some of the people in the Bible. How did God’s choosing to use those people go against how we might think God would choose people to use? (Consider Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Mary, Peter, and Paul.)

Are there people in your life God has chosen to use in surprising ways?