Daily Devotion – December 28, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison

Ephesians 1:3-14
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
1:4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.
1:5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,
1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
1:8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight
1:9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,
1:10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
1:11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,
1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
1:13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;
1:14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

The letter to the Christians in Ephesus begins as a love letter to God. These verses are filled with praise and wonder that God would be generous enough to human beings to shower us with every spiritual blessing. The writer is saying “This is so amazing one can hardly believe it!”

Then he says, “Not only have we been so blessed, but also God chose us to be holy, to be his children, before the world was even created!”

Then he says, “Not only were we chosen and pre-adopted and lavished with blessings, but he has actually let us know that we will live forever, gathered up to the very home of God so that we can live our lived here on earth in trust and well-founded hope all the days of our lives.”

The God who would imagine a future with the human beings God has created, a future in which they are not playthings or pawns but beloved children, this is really a God worth praising. Throughout his ministry, the Apostle Paul spent a lot of time praising God, the Father of Jesus. That is probably because in Jesus’s own ministry, Jesus never stopped teaching his disciples and the crowds about the love of God the Creator, God his Father.

We easily get caught up in our earthly duties and desires and intrigues and legitimate worries. Of course we do. But once in a while, let us think for a moment about the great God who created everything and everybody. Let us think about that God sitting around imagining our future, planning for us a future of praise without end, a future of goodness and love that God wants to lavish upon us. Our God promises us a life in which we can be secure, knowing that our Creator loves us eternally.

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for planning for our future in your great and lavish love. Amen.