But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. – 1 Peter 2:9
The people of God are a holy nation – Not a perfect people but people set apart with a passion to live to please God. We are special to him not because of who we are but because of the one who we belong to.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. – Jeremiah 1:5
God knew you just as he knew Jeremiah, long before you were born or even conceived. He thought about you and planned for you to do great things in this world. When you feel discouraged and inadequate, remember God always thought of you as valuable and that he has a purpose in mind for you.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11
This is how much God loves you. He already determined the plans that he has for your life. God doesn’t cause evil things to happen to you. He wants you to have hope for a bright and peaceable future. All acts of God are done in love.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. – John 6:44
We all need to remember that it was God who drew us to him and we can receive the love of God because we are in relationship with him through Jesus.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love. – Ephesians 1:3-4
God created us for himself, for his purposes. He knew us and chose us before the foundation of the world. Before we even acknowledged him. He chose us before we backslid or gave in to that temptation. God knew all that about us and still chose us to be found in Him. God chose us and when we belong to him through Jesus, God looks at us as if we had never sinned.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10
God knows us so well that he has already prepared good work for us to do that fits perfectly with who we are. He chose us to be in him and did all this for us to fulfill his purposes for us. It is divinely prescribed and benefits others in such a way that God is glorified.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
If the other verses didn’t convince you that God loves you and chose you then this verse will. God sent his only son Jesus into this world to die for us so that we can be in relationship with Him. I hope that this verse fills your heart with love and you feel how much God loves you and chose you!