Devotion

Chosen
So, I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen. ---2 Timothy 2:12

It is not a matter of whether we have been chosen. Yes, we are chosen to endure whatever summons us to stand strong in our faith and loyalty to God's Kingdom. But there is an aspect of our chosen-ness that we can be guilty of overlooking if we operate from a viewpoint of tunnel vision. This viewpoint has to deal with our endurance with our brothers and sisters who are lost and searching for a purpose to life, and our brothers and sister in Christ who may fall down time and again and need to be able to look up and see our hands outstretched to help them up. We have the best of intentions in mind and heart to serve God’s Kingdom. But His Kingdom isn’t some farfetched glistening place that has to be built from the ground up. It already exists. You and I, and all of God's children possess an exquisite piece of His beautiful Kingdom within our souls - right here, right now. But there is a thief who 'comes only to kill, steal, and destroy' (John 10:10) our priceless pieces of the Kingdom by bombarding us with worldly distractions. We can get off track and neglect how we make the most progress for the Kingdom - that is - by seeing about and taking care of each other. Our piece of the Kingdom needs the pieces of the Kingdom found in the least of these, the imprisoned, the lost, the fallen - all of our brothers and sisters - so that the Kingdom may be whole. Yes, we are chosen to endure for our people because our Savior chose to endure the Cross for us.