Why did God choose Abraham -And What IF You're the One God doesn't choose? 🤔🤔

[Kekeli]

God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him. But why Abraham and not someone else? Surely others could have responded to God just as well—or maybe even better.

That raises some honest questions for us today:

Was Abraham chosen because of something in him, or purely by God’s will?

Is favor the same as favoritism?

And what if you feel like you’re the one God didn’t choose—for a calling, a blessing, or even a purpose? How should a believer understand that?


Let's hear your perspectives and Scriptures or experience on this on this.

 

[ThereRoseaLamb]

God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him. But why Abraham and not someone else? Surely others could have responded to God just as well—or maybe even better.
That raises some honest questions for us today:

Was Abraham chosen because of something in him, or purely by God’s will?

The Bible says God chose Abraham because of his Faith. When God chooses He always makes the right choice because He knows the beginning and the end.

Is favor the same as favoritism?

And what if you feel like you’re the one God didn’t choose—for a calling, a blessing, or even a purpose? How should a believer understand that?

God has a purpose for each of us. God doesn't show favoritism. Each of us has blessings and trials in our lives just as Abraham did.

 

[seoulsearch]

God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him. But why Abraham and not someone else? Surely others could have responded to God just as well—or maybe even better.

That raises some honest questions for us today:

Was Abraham chosen because of something in him, or purely by God’s will?

Is favor the same as favoritism?

And what if you feel like you’re the one God didn’t choose—for a calling, a blessing, or even a purpose? How should a believer understand that?


Let's hear your perspectives and Scriptures or experience on this on this.

Hi @Kekeli!

Thanks for this great thread and for your honest questions. I've grown up in church communities, and a lot of people SAY they want to be called by God to do great things, or ask, "Why that person and not me?!"

But hindsight is 20/20 and we have no way of knowing what will happen.

If we take a long look at the stories of the people who were called in the Bible, I think the first honest step is to look at their lives as a whole -- especially the trials they went through.

For example:

1. Abraham had to leave his entire family, land, and everything he knew, and he didn't even know where God was taking him. There was no email, Pony Express, US Postal system, internet, no trains, planes, or automobiles to go back to visit every year -- presumably, he would never see or hear from the people he knew and loved in his homeland again.

If we want to be chosen by God in that way, would we be able to do this? Could we handle being cut of off from everything we ever knew and loved, and truly have to start all over?

2. Abraham longed for a child for a very long time -- and when he was finally given one (through a whole series of other tests and trials,) he was told to take that beloved son up on a mountain and sacrifice him.

Now of course, we all rejoice with the fact that God saw that Abraham loved God more than his son Isaac, but if God told us, "I'm going to test you to see if you love anyone else more than me, that person is going to die" -- how would the rest of us respond?

Because not everyone called of God got Abraham's happy conclusion. God told Ezekiel plainly, "Son of man, with one blow, I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes," (Ezekiel 24:15,) and that very night, Ezekiel's wife died -- and he was not even allowed to mourn. And the Bible doesn't say that Ezekiel loved his wife more than God, God just decided for His own reasons, to take her away.

If we take a good, hard honest look at the people God chose and what they went through -- how well would we cope with this? If God said, "Ok, I'll call you like Abraham or one these others you've read about, but the person you love most -- spouse, parents, sibling, child -- is going to have to die."

How many people would still be left eagerly awaiting in line for that calling?

If God told you that He was going to take away the one you loved most that night, would you still want Him to call you on the same level as the Biblical icons of faith?

God knows everything about us, what we're capable of, and what how and what we can cope with.

I personally suspect God would LOVE to call people today at the same caliber to which He was able to call the Biblical giants of the past, but He can't find anyone willing or able to endure the hardships that would come along with it.

And that would definitely include me, as un-Christian as it is to admit.

But I can't lie or hide anything from God, and from my own heart, that's the honest truth.

 

[seoulsearch]

For all the people who ARE willing to be called by God at that level, and have gone through all the things required of God of those who had that strong of faith -- I would love to hear your stories, because you are a MUCH better person than I am.

(I.e., who did God take away from you because of your calling?)

 

[Lynx]

God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him. But why Abraham and not someone else? Surely others could have responded to God just as well—or maybe even better.

That raises some honest questions for us today:

Was Abraham chosen because of something in him, or purely by God’s will?

Is favor the same as favoritism?

And what if you feel like you’re the one God didn’t choose—for a calling, a blessing, or even a purpose? How should a believer understand that?


Let's hear your perspectives and Scriptures or experience on this on this.

Lots of responsibility in that being called stuff. If somebody else is called, Lord give them strength and I'm glad that they're doing it instead of me.

 

[cinder]

God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him. But why Abraham and not someone else? Surely others could have responded to God just as well—or maybe even better.

That raises some honest questions for us today:

Was Abraham chosen because of something in him, or purely by God’s will?

Is favor the same as favoritism?

And what if you feel like you’re the one God didn’t choose—for a calling, a blessing, or even a purpose? How should a believer understand that?


Let's hear your perspectives and Scriptures or experience on this on this.

The really interesting thing about Abraham's story is Gen 11:31 - "[Terah, Abraham's father,] set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there ." Makes me wonder if God called Terah to go to Canaan first but he wasn't willing. See the problem with a story is that the ones who received a call but ignored it or disobeyed rarely get to be part of the story. So maybe Abraham was chosen just because he said yes when called, and kept on saying yes and holding on in faith for the next two decades.

As for feeling like you aren't chosen, well we don't get to choose what use God makes of us. Seoulsearch isn't chosen to serve people by fixing their computers, Lynx isn't chosen to be a hardworking CEO working 80 hours a week to build and run a multi-million dollar business. I'm not chosen to be a salesperson.

There's that verse about one body and many parts and far too often we all think we should be called to be and eye or a hand or an ear, but the body has an appendix, pancreas, and fat cells as well and some of us are going to be called to be fat cells for the kingdom. And perhaps one of the hardest parts of the christian walk is to be content to be a fat cell when everyone and your own heart are asking why you aren't an eye or a hand. But if those fat cells will sit contentedly and store up the energy like they're supposed to, when times get lean they'll come into their own and provide the energy the body desperately needs (ok that's probably overstretching the metaphor, but hopefully I made my point).

 

[Karlon]

God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him. But why Abraham and not someone else? Surely others could have responded to God just as well—or maybe even better.

That raises some honest questions for us today:

Was Abraham chosen because of something in him, or purely by God’s will?

Is favor the same as favoritism?

And what if you feel like you’re the one God didn’t choose—for a calling, a blessing, or even a purpose? How should a believer understand that?


Let's hear your perspectives and Scriptures or experience on this on this.

abraham was chosen because God saw that he was the perfect person. simple as that. we will probably never understand here on earth why but we may find out in heaven. be careful not to cogitate on that too much. yes, there was something in him, a pure conscious probably & a fine Christian heart, soul, mind & spirit! favor can be rendered by just means as in a handicapped person deserving favor for care or a vote was favored over another one for the good of mankind. favoritism is unjustly allowing someone to receive more than others just because you like or prefer them better.

 

[Lynx]

The really interesting thing about Abraham's story is Gen 11:31 - "[Terah, Abraham's father,] set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there ." Makes me wonder if God called Terah to go to Canaan first but he wasn't willing. See the problem with a story is that the ones who received a call but ignored it or disobeyed rarely get to be part of the story. So maybe Abraham was chosen just because he said yes when called, and kept on saying yes and holding on in faith for the next two decades.

Huh. Never thought about that.