God Chose EVERYONE To Love

Deuteronomy 7: 6-7 - For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.  The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 

Moses used the time he had left with this great nation of people to remind them over and over just how much God loved them to have chosen them to be HIS people from all the nations on Earth. He chose a single faithful man…  and used everything in his life and the descendants that came from his marriage to Sarah to make the a great blessed nation.  Moses wanted them to never forget that they were chosen…and as much as they had been blessed…God would take it all away if they ever turned against him.

God knew that they would be tempted by everything they saw and experienced as they began to take the land God had promised them.  It was a land possessed by great and mighty nations…that had given their allegiance and loyalties to other gods. They would need to destroy all traces of those gods to keep them from swaying their thoughts against the Lord.

I am so very thankful that God made a way to enlarge his idea of chosen people to include all nations and races. John 3:16 says that God “loved the world”, Hebrews 2 tells us that Jesus “tasted death for everyone”, and First John says that he is the propitiation for “the whole world.” That makes it pretty clear to me that God chose us all.

 God also gave us free choice. He never forces his love on us…we must accept him and believe in the act of love that gave his life to atone for all our sins. I needed the reminder that many temptations still exist in our world to keep my relationship with God from becoming all that it could be.  Jesus death on the cross changed the way we interact with those that do not believe…we no longer called to destroy unbelievers…but show God’s love and mercy to them so that they might believe too.

 Father…thank you for the reminder that you chose me to love. Forgive me for the times that I do not model that love to others. Keep me from temptations that separate me from knowing you as deep as you want me to know you. Help me to always believe in my heart that you are all I need. Amen.