You Didn't Choose Jesus. He Chose You.

I've often wondered if being a disciple is something we do through effort, or if it's something we do because we are called into it.

Do I decide that I want to be a disciple of Jesus and then just get to work? Then, somewhere along the way, I grow in relationship with Him and become a Known Disciple?

I could make the case that it was first my idea to follow Jesus. That I discovered His love, compassion, and grace because I was seeking it. This leads to the next thought: that it was my idea to follow Jesus as a disciple. Through my own effort and desire, I draw near to Him.

I spent much of my young Christian years operating like this. As if it was my idea, my effort, my work. And Jesus simply rewarded it.

This is what we call a performance or achievement orientation. "If I perform certain things at a certain level… then I am a good and faithful disciple."

The problem with this is that when we stop serving, whether from burnout, drift, vacation, doubt, or some other reason… we no longer feel connected to our Lord.

This was my exact struggle. If I was performing, I felt amazing. If I stopped performing (doing the things Christians do), then I started wondering why Jesus felt so far away.

All of this is great error.

It is a reliance on self, rather than on Christ.

For me, I have deep scars from my childhood that keep me in a place of relying on no one but myself. Because everyone else will leave, hurt you, or otherwise let you down. So, it was very difficult to wrap my mind around not relying on my own efforts as a disciple of Jesus.

Here is the problem… Despite what I think of my own efforts, it was God who called me. I did not choose Him. He chose me. Just like He has chosen you.

John 15:16
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give to you."

I had it all backwards. What I thought was my desire to choose God was actually my response to Him choosing me. The evidence of this is all over my life.

When I began to understand this, because of scripture and the evidence in my own life, I began to understand just how deep, and long, and wide God's love and grace really is. See Ephesians 3:17-19.

You see, if I could earn even one part of my own salvation, I would go all in with that and ignore the grace God offers through Jesus. I would bet on myself. I would lose.

But I see now that God did not leave that open to us. It is ALL Jesus and none of our own effort that makes us a disciple of Jesus. This is the entire point of the Matthew 5 description of a disciple. A disciple:

• Is poor in spirit, meaning he relies only on Jesus
• Mourns the sin in his life
• Is meek, because he is submitted to the Lord
• Hungers and thirsts for righteousness, meaning their desire for Christ grows
• Is merciful, because the mercy they have been shown is overpowering
• Is pure in heart, meaning focused on one thing only: Jesus
• Is a peacemaker, meaning he fights for peace, not passive
• Is persecuted, because he does not align with the world

None of these principles are natural to me, even with my desire to excel at them. All of them are present in our life because of our exposure to Jesus and the forming of our spirit through abiding in Christ.

Trust me… I have tried to grow these things in myself apart from Christ in my younger years. It's a losing proposition to think you can try your way into them.

And so, it is Jesus that calls us to follow Him. And it is deeper than we first realize.

• In Psalm 139, we see that God created us.
• In Ephesians 2:10, we see that He created us to do good works.
• In Philippians 1:6, we see that God promises to complete the work He began in us and with us.

What I would love for you to take from this blog today is that Jesus called you to follow Him completely. And with that, He offered grace, challenge, and friendship. Your journey as a disciple started because the teacher called you to follow Him. Not the other way around.