Among the many songs that I have in my music library and love to play on the piano, Why Have You Chosen Me? is one of the finest. It feels like a song that comes from the heart of one who knows exactly what they are: a sinner. The question, “Why have You chosen me out of millions your child to be?” is asked with a certain amount of incredulity because for the questioner, the answer seems to be beyond understanding. And yet, the answer to this question is very simple. “Because I love you.” This question could be asked by every human being who is, or ever has, living and lived on the earth from the beginning of time, and the answer would be the same for every one of them, “Because I love you.”
God created mankind because He wanted children to love and for them to love Him in return. To His newly-created children, Adam and Eve, He gave everything that would delight the eye, and overwhelm the senses. Fragrances that we cannot even comprehend today, filled the air in Eden. Imagine how much we love to walk barefoot in the grass here, and how much more pleasing it will be to walk barefoot upon the sloping landscapes of the new earth. Think of the tastes that God’s children experienced from the food He provided. And in Eden, there was nothing but love. Hatred, selfishness, anger, sorrow, sadness, discouragement, loss none of these had a place there, and soon, very soon, they will be gone forever.
Friend, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, just come. It doesn’t matter what you’ve said, felt, or imagined, just come. Surrender, and let the Lord make you again into His image. Only then can you live, by His grace and mercy, a life of perfect obedience to His will.
“The Lord wants you to stand in His strength. He wants you to open the windows of the soul heavenward and close them earthward. He wants to reveal His salvation.” Manuscript Releases, Vol. 13, 205, 206
“The Lord is our strength. It is safe for us not to build up self, but to let the Lord work His will in and by and through us.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers (1923), 250
Why have You chosen me
Out of millions Your child to be?
You know all the wrong I have done.
O, how could You pardon me,
Forgive my iniquity
To save me, give Jesus Your son.
I am amazed to know
That a God so great could love me so.
He’s willing and wanting to bless.
His grace is so wonderful,
His mercy so bountiful,
I can’t understand it, I confess.
But Lord, help me be
What You want me to be.
Your word I will strive to obey
My life I now give, for You I will live,
And walk by Your side all the way.
by Rodger Strader
“Let the Lord take His way and do His work with me, so that I am refined and purified; and that is all I desire.” Atlantic Union Gleaner, March 17, 1915