I Choose Today to Believe I Am Chosen and Known

As I continue sharing through my I Choose Today podcast series on identity in Christ, one truth keeps surfacing that feels both tender and deeply needed: we don’t just belong to God — we are chosen and known by Him.

After learning to receive identity and lay down striving, a quieter question often rises in our hearts: Do I really belong? Am I actually wanted? Not just forgiven. Not just included. But wanted.

Psalm 139 reminds us that God’s knowledge of us is personal, not distant. “You have searched me, Lord, and You know me.” He knows the parts we celebrate, the parts we hide, and the parts still healing, and His knowing is not followed by rejection, but by nearness. We often live as though God is discovering who we are in real time, surprised by our failures and impressed by our good days. But Scripture shows something different. We were fully known before we ever tried to be impressive.

Ephesians 1 tells us that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world… in love.” Before we prayed a prayer. Before we cleaned up our lives. Before we understood theology. Chosen. Not randomly. Not accidentally. Not reluctantly. Intentionally. Many of us quietly believe we are barely tolerated, like we slipped into the Kingdom by grace but are still on probation. But chosen means wanted. Not just accepted, desired. Not just included, pursued.

There is a woman in Scripture who understood what it felt like to be unseen and unwanted. Her name was Hagar. She entered God’s story as a servant, with little voice and almost no choices. Life went terribly wrong, and she found herself alone and pregnant, walking through a wilderness she never chose. And Scripture says, “The angel of the Lord found her” (Genesis 16:7). Which means — He was looking.

Hagar wasn’t searching for God. She was just trying to survive. But God went searching for her. Years later, when she and her son were in the desert with no water left, Scripture says God opened her eyes and she saw a well that had been there all along (Genesis 21). Right there in the wilderness, Hagar gave God a name: El Roi — “The God who sees me.” Because when everyone else overlooked her, God never did.

There have been seasons in my own life where I could say the same. Seasons of feeling unwanted, overlooked, like I didn’t belong anywhere. Nights when tears were my only prayer and silence felt like my only companion. But God was there. He didn’t wait until everything was fixed. He met me in the wilderness, just like Hagar, and whispered, “You are seen. You are not forgotten. Your story doesn’t end here.”

Being chosen by God is not fragile. It is not based on our best season, and it does not wobble when we struggle. When Scripture says we are chosen in Christ, it describes a settled decision in the heart of God. He didn’t choose us because we were impressive. He chose us because He is loving. That means our identity is anchored in who He is, not in how well we’re doing. We do not wake up one day and find we’ve been un-chosen. We don’t slip out of His awareness. We are held in a love that is not reconsidering us.

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Before calling, before usefulness, before assignment — known. Our worth to God has never been tied to our productivity. Our identity is not built on what we do for Him, but on being His.

Being known and chosen doesn’t feel like pressure. It feels like exhale. It feels like not having to perform to keep God’s attention. It feels like belonging without auditioning. Because chosen means this: you are not invisible in the Kingdom, not replaceable, not just part of the crowd. You are personally known and intentionally wanted.

So today, I choose to believe I am chosen and known. And I pray you do, too.

This blog was adapted from the podcast Episode 44. Listen to the full message at whichever podcast platform you choose. If you need a link to those platforms, visit ichoosetoday.org/listen.