Chosen

God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

There is a song, currently playing on Christian radio stations, in which artist Jason Gray, pleads with God to remind him who he is.

The lyrics say: Remind me who I am. If I'm your beloved can you help me believe it. Tell me, once again, who I am to you, who I am to you. Tell me, lest I forget, who I am to you, that I belong to you. (Jason Gray, Remind Me Who I Am)

I can so deeply relate to the internal struggle the musical prayer brings to light. The spiritual battle to remember, continually, through good times and bad, through sorrows and sins, that I am God's chosen, adopted children -- His beloved.

It's so easy to wonder, when life doesn't go the way we expect it to, whether we really are beloved by God.

It's so difficult to remember, when the weight of our own sins pile up on our hearts, that we still belong to God.

It's easy to forget that we have each been chosen by God to play a specific role in His vast, magnificent plan for humanity.

But we are chosen. When we enter into relationship with God we become His chosen. Regardless of the mistakes we have made in our past. Regardless of the sins we will commit in our future. We belong to God. We are His beloved.

We are part of a Church family that began with twelve men -- apostles -- who were chosen by Jesus.

Scriptures tells us that, as the crowds around Him grew dramatically, Jesus chose twelve men, from his many disciples, to become His apostles. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles...Luke 6:13.

Twelve men were chosen to become the first members of the Church family. They were chosen to become great in the Kingdom of God.

But, as we all learn as we draw ever nearer to God, greatness in the Kingdom of God doesn't necessarily equate to greatness in the world around us.

The chosen of God quickly became targets of men. Of the twelve, ten are believed to have died a martyr's death. One narrowly escaped the same fate. And the final one, lost in overwhelming darkness, took his own life.

We know they were chosen for greatness. But, as they walked the difficult journeys that lay ahead of them, I imagine that they too prayed for God to remind them who they were to Him.

As the world, very literally, beat them down, I imagine there were moments when they prayed for God to help them believe they were, indeed, His beloved children.

As they lay in prison cells, and met in hidden rooms, I imagine that they pleaded with God to remind them that they belonged to Him.

As soon as Jesus chose these men to become part of God's plan, He began to prepare them for the hazards of the road ahead and the upside-down nature of His kingdom. He foresaw their struggle....and ours as well.

The well-known teaching of the Beatitudes, follows Jesus' selection of apostles.

Jesus began the sermon, addressed specifically to His disciples, with the declaration that God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs (Matthew 5:3).

If the chosen twelve imagined that greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven equated to riches, and self-sufficiency, Jesus laid those thoughts to rest rather quickly pointing towards humility as a means of rising to greatness in God's Kingdom.

Jesus continued, God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

We've done a lot of mourning in our house in recent years with the untimely loss of several loved ones. Through every tear we've cried, however, we've been comforted by God and His promise that we will be reunited with our loved ones again one day.

On the night of the crucifixion, I imagine the chosen twelve mourned in like fashion, but I don't believe that is the only type of mourning that Jesus referred to in His teaching.

Two of the twelve apostles, near the time of the crucifixion, mourned, not only their loss of Jesus, but their own betrayal of Him.

Scripture tells us that the Apostle Peter wept bitterly, after denying Jesus three times (Luke 22:62). On the night that Jesus was taken away from him, Peter clearly saw the weakness of his own humanity. He experienced the sting of his own betrayal. He felt the weight of his own sin.

And he mourned because of it.

Peter became poor in Spirit. He realized His own personal need for God, and His forgiveness. He mourned his own sin. And, we know, because of his continued role in the foundation of the church, that he was comforted.

I imagine that as Peter mourned, God reminded him of who he was to Him. I imagine that God helped Peter to believe that, in spite of his sin, he remained His beloved. I imagine that God reminded Peter that he belonged to Him, and had yet to fulfill his complete role in the Kingdom of Heaven.

I imagine that in his sorrow, God reminded Peter, that he was chosen.

Another one of the chosen twelve mourned his own betrayal of Jesus. Scripture tells us that Judas too felt the sting of his own betrayal, and that in his sorrow, he ended his own life (Matthew 27:5). Comfortless. 

The saddest thing about Judas' death is that comfort was available to him as well. Forgiveness was available, even to him. But, he died without experiencing it. He died in the darkness of the pit he crawled into when he chose to betray Jesus.

Peter, on the other hand, went on to become what Jesus chose him to become -- a rock that He could build His Church upon.

Peter's letters to the early church, and to us, seem to spring forth from the Beatitudes and the teachings that follow them. Encouraging the church. Calling for endurance and rejoicing in the face of life's difficulties, and, above all else, humility.

Peter wrote to remind each member of the Church that we are chosen by God.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (I Peter 2:9).

Not only did God call us into His marvelous light, but He has called us to be His marvelous light.

In the next passage of scripture, following the Beatitudes, Jesus said, You are the light of the world -- like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14).

Each time we fall into the darkness of sin, we can choose to react like Peter did, by mourning our sins and turning to God for comfort, or we can choose to react like Judas did, by drowning in darkness and sorrow. Even as a chosen child of God we can become so overwhelmed by sin and darkness that our light is all but extinguished.

We can choose to live our lives as a beacon of light, pointing others toward the hope and comfort we have in God, even in the midst of our sinful human existence, or we can allow ourselves to swallowed up by the darkness around us.

Peter's light shone because, not because he was perfect, but because, when he lost his way, and darkness threatened to overwhelm him, he took his mourning heart to God for comfort.

And God reminded him who he was.

Peter remembered that he was God's beloved child. He remembered that he belonged to God.
He remembered that he was chosen.

We must do the same. We must remember who we are. And when we can't remember on our own, we can always ask God to remind us who we are. He will comfort us. He will help us to remember...

We belong to Him....even when we sin.

We are beloved....even when we fail.

We are chosen....even when we betray our Savior.

That is the gift of faith in us.

(Journey: Mark 3:7-19; Luke 6:12-26; Matthew 5:1-16)