Are you a true believer? This question will either sound offensive to your ears or attractive. Even if it sounds attractive, you may still experience a sense of uneasiness. So, you may ask yourself, Am I chosen by God? Or am I only fooling myself? To help answer these soul-searching questions, here are words of wisdom from a master of faith, Christopher Love, an English Puritan. In one of his sermons, Love provided eight characteristics of a person whom God has effectually called (I've taken the liberty to paraphrase and modernize his points):
The effectually called person loves the word of the Lord and the Christian who preached that word to him.
The effectually called person has been delivered, by the power of the Holy Spirit, from a state of darkness and ignorance and given a measure of knowledge so that she is acquainted with the mysteries of God and Christ and knows her own sinfulness.
The effectually called person no longer relies on himself and his own limited resources but clings to Jesus Christ and his infinite resources.
The effectually called person has been enabled by the Holy Spirit to cry to God for salvation.
The effectually called person utterly loathes and detests all the evil that he committed before he was made alive in Christ.
The effectually called person obeys the commands of Jesus Christ because her spirit has been brought into a state of obedience by God.
The effectually called person is ridiculed and hated by the world.
The effectually called person makes every effort to walk in a way that is worthy of his calling.
It's worth remembering what Paul taught about this matter, 'For it is by grace that you were saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast' (Ephesians 2.8). In other words, to be effectually called does not mean we have worked really hard at pleasing God. On our own, no one has ever pleased Him. The root problem is our sinfulness. God effectually calls his children out of that state and grants them new life in his Son, Jesus Christ. The list comes from Sermon Three in A Treatise of Effectual Calling by Christopher Love (Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1998).
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