Chosen!

Eph 1:4, 11 - According as he hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world...being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.

We see here from Eph 1 the God "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" Basically, what we see happening on a day to day basis in this world is not just a matter of chance, accident or coincidence. Things do not just work out the way they do for no reason at all. There definitely is a reason for everything. And the ultimate reason for everything is the great plan of God. "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever," (Rom 11:36) Sometimes we tend to forget that God has planned every that happens. And all that is happening to the elect is working towards our justification, our sanctification and our edification. "And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God. To them who are the called according to His purpose." (Rom 8:28) God also tells us through the prophet Isaiah "the end from the beginning...My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa 46:10) As for us humans, God speaks through Job, "his days are determine, the number of his months are with Thee, thou hast appointed His bounds that He cannot pass" (Job 14:5) Also we read in Proverbs "the Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov 16:4)
A false inference that generally comes from one hearing "God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass" is that 'if God predestined everything than He must be the author of sin as well'. It is a very difficult concept to grasp, to say the least. For, if we say that God has planned everything, we connot leave sin out. God has planned sin too, and if God has planned sin, it would almost seem that God must be the author of it. But this is just one of many places in which we must just accept what the Scriptures say instead of following what seems reasonable to us. Just because we cannot understand something spiritual with our finite minds does not give us the right to deny the Scriptures. God created both angles and men. But they were good when He first made them. Somehow (and we do not know how) sin arose in these creatures. God's plan included this, but not in such as way as to make Him the author of sin.
Another falsity is, that we are compared to pawns on a chessboard. It is true that God has already determined the destiny of every man. Some will be saved, as God has appointed. And some will be lost, as God has decreed. We see in Jude that "certain people....who long ago were designated for this condemnation," But "God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation" (1 Thess. 5:9)
The Bible clearly teaches the those who are finally lost, do not really want to be saved. They are lost because of their own choice. And apart from God's grace everyman would be lost. Before Christ comes to those whom He has elected and changes their heart and quickens their dead spirit, we too would choose damnation over salvation. The decree of God does not in any way, shape or form, weaken or destroy the responsibility of us a humans.