CHOSEN AND PLACED

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15:16 NKJV)

We did not choose Him. There we have the evil of the human heart, the film of blindness which sin casts on the sight, the deafness with which it dulls the ear. For to have missed Jesus, to pass Him by, is as though the pearl hunter were unable to recognize the pearl of greatest price; or the mother to recognize her own babe; or the seeker after the holy grail to fail to discover its mystic sheen!

"But I chose you." He chose us probably because we were useless and helpless, and He wanted to show what supreme miracles His grace could achieve. The prophet says that the branches of the vine are more useless than any others (Ezekiel 16:1-5). The principle of God's choice is to take what all others reject, the fire brand plucked from the burning, the feebly smoking wick, the bruised reed; the younger sons, the sin sick and lame, the last and least; the things that are foolish, despised, and weak, these are God's choice, that He may bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh may glory in His presence.

There was no error in the foreknowledge which preceded our election. God knew all that we were all that we should be. He foresaw our down sittings, our hours of depression, our obstinacy, our wanderings into the far country, but He didn’t swerve. Having chosen us, He is going to justify His choice, unless we definitely refuse to let Him have his way through our disobedience.

“‘And appointed you.'" Our Master has placed us just where we are, that He might have a suitable outlet for His abundant life, which He longs to pour forth upon the world. Don’t be sorrowful or murmur at your lot in life, but remember that He has appointed and placed you there. As the branch is nailed to the wall that it may cover it with foliage and fruit, so Christ has placed you where you are. That inevitable circumstance is the rough piece of cloth, that sorrow is the nail that pains the restraint such as He suffered on the cross.

"That ye should go." "Where, Master? Into all the world, as My disciples! I have chosen you out of it and now I send you back as My representatives, through whom I may pour out My life and love. Go and bear fruit!"

PRAYER

Heavenly Master, enable us by Your grace to fill the opportunity, and do the work that You have assigned. May we not murmur or complain because our place is obscure and the time long, but bear much fruit for Your glory. In Christ’s name I ask it, AMEN.