I follow a minister of deeper things. His name is Doug Fortune. His question for today is Did your story really begin at birth? Or were you chosen before time?

My answer to that question comes from scripture.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Eph 1:4

All of His chosen have been around since we were created in Him. We were before we were born. We existed before we walked into this physical realm. We will continue to walk in eternity in Him.

There is too much already said about us being created before time. Before time to me is saying we’ve always been. . . How we presently are is a refining and maturing time, for after this moment in growth, like a caterpillar in the chrysalis stage, we become a butterfly. Imagine our “before” versus our “after”. Think about all that goes on in the place of change. In the chrysalis, all that we were becomes something completely different, yet still holding our identity.

The awakening is simply the unfolding of our lives as we mature in the nature of who we are. So yes, we were before the foundation; now we are in the process, with yet-to-be-seen results, as we mature into an eternal state because of His divine process.

God’s eternal knowledge/intentional plan: God sees and wills your life from before birth. A widely cited verse is:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you… – Jeremiah 1:5

Many times I’ve been in prayer, and I hear God say that I am chosen by Him. I got curious as to just what that means. To be chosen in Christ means to be selected by God for a special purpose, which includes the opportunity for salvation and a relationship with Him through faith. This concept emphasizes that being chosen is a gift from God, not something earned, and it calls individuals to live in obedience and service to God’s teachings.

How does one know they are chosen? Let’s go to a starting line to where it all begins.

For many are called, but few are chosen. – Matt 22:14

In Bible discussion, someone can be sure they are among God’s chosen by having faith in Jesus—because the idea is that faith happens because God calls and draws people to Christ. One commonly suggested way to check is to confess that Jesus is Lord and to believe in his resurrection, since that is considered evidence that God’s Spirit is at work in you.

When I read Matt 22:14, I ask the obvious question of “many” vs “few”. How does this occur? Then it dawned on me that God doesn’t delineate the chosen from the called. The appropriation of being chosen is up to the individual who is called. God offered the grace and mercy that comes with salvation. With our free will, we can accept or deny the gift of life He offered; hence, many are called, few are chosen by acknowledgment by the individual He called.

If you’ve never considered acknowledging what God has offered, I would ask that you do so. Your eternity depends on your answer to that calling God has put out there for you, as stated in Matthew 22:14.