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Chosen of God, March 12
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee
from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my
servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
Isaiah 41:9
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Many have confused ideas as to what constitutes faith, and they live
altogether below their privileges. They confuse feeling and faith, and are
continually distressed and perplexed in mind; for Satan takes all possible
advantage of their ignorance and inexperience.... We are to accept of Christ
as our personal Saviour, or we shall fail in our attempt to be overcomers.
It will not answer for us to hold ourselves aloof from Him, to believe
that our friend or our neighbor may have Him for a personal Saviour, but
that we may not experience His pardoning love. We are to believe that
we are chosen of God, to be saved by the exercise of faith, through the
grace of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit; and we are to praise and
glorify God for such a marvelous manifestation of His unmerited favor. It
is the love of God that draws the soul to Christ, to be graciously received,
and presented to the Father. Through the work of the Spirit the divine
relationship between God and the sinner is renewed. The Father says: “I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. I will exercise
forgiving love toward them, and bestow upon them my joy. They shall be
to me a peculiar treasure; for this people whom I have formed for myself
shall show forth my praise.”
The Father sets His love upon His elect people who live in the midst
of men. These are the people whom Christ has redeemed by the price
of His own blood; and because they respond to the drawing of Christ,
through the sovereign mercy of God, they are elected to be saved as His
obedient children. Upon them is manifested the free grace of God, the
love wherewith He hath loved them. Everyone who will humble himself
as a little child, who will receive and obey the word of God with a child’s
simplicity, will be among the elect of God.
You can prove yourself elected of Christ by being faithful; you can
prove yourself the chosen of Christ by abiding in the vine.
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