Chosen, Count the Cost

Chosen.  Do you remember in sports when you were young and older kids were picking teams and you wondered if you would ever be picked?  And how good it was when you were picked early because someone considered you valuable.  The good news today is that you not only have been chosen but you are considered valuable as His treasure.  In Ephesians 1:4 it states before the foundation of the world you have been chosen to be holy and blameless before Him. Jesus has called you and chosen you to be His light in the world. He has prepared works for us beforehand that we should walk in them.

Whenever God calls you to do something, He also provides and enables you to accomplish it.  However, there is a problem.  Because God chose you, the world hates you (John 15:19), just as it hated Jesus. In short, there is always a price to pay if you are going to do something for the Lord of if you are going to obey Him.  After God told Moses to go to Egypt and set His people free, the Egyptian taskmasters made it harder on the Hebrew slaves forcing them to get the straw and make the same number of bricks. David, called to be king, had to endure the jealous attacks of Saul. Scripture is filled with examples of the trials God's people had to overcome in order to fulfill their call.

Jesus uses parables to explain the need to count the cost.  However, Paul, in the New Testament, who went through a myriad of challenges including mobs of Jews, shipwrecks, stoning, rejection and betrayal, is known for bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles and writing a majority of the epistles.  He is not known for the battles he had to fight.  What was his perspective that made all the difference?  He considered the cost as nothing compared to the glory that was to be revealed.

Yes, there is a cost.  We do go through the valley of the shadow of death.  However, God is with us and He continually prepares a table before us in the midst of our enemies and surely His goodness and mercy follow us every day.  When God is with us, even the attacks of the enemy get turned into good and God provides the strength to endure and shows the way of escape.  Thank you for being willing to fight the good fight of faith, and for doing the work God has given you.  However, know that there is One who will come again soon bringing His rewards with Him, and at that point everything and every price we have paid in our commitment to Jesus and His Word will be a million times worth it.  Keep the vision of pleasing God in all you do, for without the vision people perish.  

Count the cost as real, but compared to the privilege of being chosen and treasured as valuable in God's kingdom, treat it is as nothing. You are chosen and will succeed, nothing else matters or can stop you.