We live in an era where those who are chosen for honor and accolades are the most skilled and gifted, the most talented and attractive, the most popular and charismatic, and the most attractive and appealing. But it’s true that mankind has tended toward such criteria for choosing leaders or those destined for some special position down through history.
The covers of our magazines choose the rich and the famous, the beautiful and successful. TV and movies choose men and women whose figures and hairlines are often flawless. Only the very best minds receive academic scholarships and only the athletes with the strongest and most consistent performance are drafted for college and professional teams.
With God it’s a different story…
He consistently chooses the unlikely one. 
Rebekah carries within her twin sons, Esau and Jacob, and at every turn Jacob connives and cheats Esau out of his birthright and father’s blessing. He deceives his father and yet it is Jacob who is chosen to be in the line from Abraham who shows up in the lineage of Christ.
The children of Jacob (now Israel) are enslaved in Egypt and God chooses Moses whom He spared in the bulrushes to lead His people to the Promised Land. Yet Moses has a hard time speaking and needs to ask his brother Aaron to do the talking for him.
When Joshua sends the spies into the Promised Land to scout out the city of Jericho, the spies are at risk to be caught and killed, but God chooses a prostitute, Rahab, to hide them. Her choice results in her salvation when God gives Jericho into the hands of Joshua and puts her in a marriage that adds her name to the lineage of Christ.
When Israel wanted a king, Saul was chosen. He towered among many of the day and seemed a likely choice; but when He disobeyed God and chose his own way, the Lord rejected him. Whom did He choose next? He sent Samuel to the house of Jesse who was blessed with many sons who were skilled and experienced, but when He made His choice it was the youngest and least likely…David…who would be made king of Israel.
When Jesus came to earth and was starting His ministry, He called ordinary fishermen to be his disciples rather than the religious leaders of the day. He even chose a tax collector.
God honored a small man named Zacchaeus to have dinner at his house even though he was hiding up in a tree.
In the midst of preaching on a hillside to thousands of people, Jesus became concerned that people there were hungry and needed to be fed. He asked the disciples to get food. They had no food with them, but a small boy with a sack lunch provided the meal Jesus blessed and everyone was fed.
After Jesus ascended into heaven and His disciples were gathering together to follow His commission, Saul, a learned Pharisee did all he could to stop them. Then God stopped Saul on his way to persecute more new believers in Damascus and changed his life and name forever. Saul (now Paul) became the great missionary to spread the gospel to the Gentiles.
And it didn’t stop there.
From the beginning until now, God has chosen the least likely, the ordinary, the broken and the flawed, the misunderstood and maligned.
No matter who you are or what your status, no matter how you have failed Him, His love pursues you and if His love pursues you, He has chosen you.
You may well wonder at that. I certainly do, but it is Paul whom no one expected to become a believer that points to God’s reason in 2 Corinthians 4:7 (TPT):
“We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that the extraordinary overflow of power will be seen as God’s, not ours.”
Thank God He chooses the unlikely or I would be in a deep hell JESUS is the reason I’m where I am today His constant LOVE persued me in addiction, in prostitution, in destruction and His LOVE still persues me TODAY FREED from addiction FREED from prostitution FREED from destruction FREED BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST! Looking back I see where JESUS was holding me, loving me and wanting me to turn to Him and He NEVER gave up His LOVE changes the game, He still blows me away with His LOVE by the people He has placed in my life the family He gifted me with and the opportunities He still places on my path. I am DEFINITELY the unlikely and I used to believed JESUS had better things to do than deal with me TODAY I know ITS ME He came to SAVE! I am on this path and HIS PLAN for me is the ONLY plan I want for me!
YOUR AWESOME PASTOR PAM thank you for your support and love and guidance in my life You are proof of GODS LOVE PURSUING ME He gifted me with you FOR SURE! Bring Me A Vision IS PHENOMENAL it reached deep within my heart and healed places that desperately needed healed! Love you
You never fail to bless my heart, Angel! yes, He chose you as well and loves you to the moon and back again! Can’t wait to see what He does in your life as you continue to walk with Him and grow in His grace, mercy, wisdom, and truth. So grateful the book touched and blessed you. That was what I hoped the Lord would do with the words He gave me about Becky’s life and His movement in and through it!💕
The extraordinary from the ordinary! God has a theme going with quite a few of us bloggers Pam!
Praise Him!
Jennifer
It’s so true that God does not follow the world’s standards! He chooses the most unlikely sometimes. When we are faithful to Him, even if we aren’t much according to the world’s standards, we can shine like lights to the dark world as Jesus shines his light through us. Thanks so much for this reminder, Pam. Blessings to you! I’m your neighbor at #HeartEncouragement.
Thanks, Gayl! Great to hear from you on this. I think the Lord was also reminding me about these truths as I launch out with my first book. Very tempted to wonder about that and whether someone who has no name in the writing world would ever have someone read her book.😊
This is so powerful and encouraging. God does not see what man sees!
So true, Katrina😊
Good thoughts that cut across our current cultural climate. Sadly, even among Christians we are celebrity worshipers and followers. God, help us to seek humility and to listen to the small and wise voices alongside those with a huge following.
Thanks, Michele! I agree with you. It seems our culture both inside and outside the body of Christ are celebrity followers and worshippers. Perhaps that gives insight to how many have fallen publicly. We have forgotten that God played out before as Jesus Christ walked the earth the antithesis of that sort of thing! 💕
Hi Pam,
What encouragement to know the grace of God choosing to love us, no matter how unlikely. So grateful! Blessings on your upcoming book 🙂
Thanks so much, Dolly! I think the book might bless you as it tells the true story of one of the less likely who was broken, abused, and wounded and after she sought help in my Christian counseling practice she came to know the Lord. A few years after counseling, she founded a ministry called Rahab that helps the broken, wounded, abused teens and women victimized by sex trafficking in Summit Co., Ohio.💕