He will always choose you
“Joyce, why have you been doing things to get in trouble?”
“Lee said if I act bad you’ll send me back. I’ve been trying so hard to be good, but I know I can’t be good all the time, so I decided to go ahead and be bad and just get it over with. I love it here, and staying longer will only make it harder to leave. I’ll go pack my bag.”
“Oh, Joyce, we will never send you back to the group home, or anywhere else, for that matter. We want you no matter what you do or don’t do. We don’t love you only if you’re good. We love you no matter how many times you do something wrong. We just love you. We chose you, Joyce, and we will never unchoose you.”
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Friends, I wrote the above dialogue to illustrate an incredible truth, and I invite you to hear it today in a deeper way: you are chosen. You are adopted into God’s family through belief in Jesus Christ and the acceptance of His salvation. And no matter what you do or don’t do, He will always love you, and He will always choose you.
This just hits differently for me now that I’m in midlife. When I was younger, I focused much more on “striving” to be “good enough,” a bit like Joyce. It felt a lot like spinning my wheels. But now I’m learning to rest more in His grace and to accept His incredible gift more fully.
Reflection Questions
What stands out to you in the dialogue above? Do you ever feel like Joyce, trying to be “good” for God but realizing you can’t always be? How do you reconcile this and lean on the truth of His unconditional love?
Whether we are hearing this for the first time or have heard it all our lives, it’s not easy to absorb that kind of love and grace. It’s supernatural! And being constantly bombarded by the natural, as we all are in our daily lives, can make it hard to make room for the supernatural. So I encourage you this week to do just that; ask the Lord to give you a deeper revelation of His love for you and His grace towards you. Journal throughout this process if you feel so inclined.
John 1:12 Yet to all who receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.