You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. (John 15:16, ESV)
I’m not entirely certain where I first heard, “People think they choose golf, but what they don’t realize is that golf chooses people.” But there is an enormous amount of truth in that statement.
This comment is not only humorous but also incredibly insightful. In it, lies the answer to my perennial question—“Why do I spend so much time and energy playing a game that I love when it’s so frustrating at times?”
What may or may not be true in golf is certainly true for those who follow Jesus Christ. Have you ever wondered where your belief in God and the gift of his Son originates? Have you considered that God’s love for you is so extraordinarily strong that he chose you, desired you, and pursued you?
Jesus makes this truth clear when he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up on the last day.”
In the original language, the word for draw is a verb and carries the idea of pulling, hauling, dragging, or seizing an object. In the above passage, the object being dragged is you. And the one doing the dragging is God the Father.
In other examples from scripture, we see the same word used for a sword being drawn from its sheath (John 18:10), a net full of heavy fish being dragged to shore (John 21:11), and Peter and Silas being dragged into the marketplace before the authorities (Acts 16:19).
When you pull that wedge from your bag to hit your shot, it’s not the wedge that is removing itself from your golf bag. You’re the one doing the work, just like the Father is pulling you to himself.
Now here’s your part— “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.” So, I have a question for you. Have you heard his voice calling you, speaking to you, and drawing you? Have you come to Jesus in faith?
All who believe in Jesus by faith have eternal life. It is his sinless life and his substitutionary death for our sins that presents us as righteous before the Father (2 Cor 5:21). If you sense God the Father drawing you, listen to him. Come to Jesus.