Ephesians 1:4-5
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[c] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Last year I memorized the book of James. It was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever done. One of the things I realized is that in memorizing large amounts of scripture, there was a new meaning to meditating on the word and letting the power of the word resonate and get deep down inside. With the new year, I decided to memorize another book. I have picked a new book to tackle… Ephesians. I imagine, you are going to see several blogs from me on bits and pieces of Ephesians.
As I’ve worked throught the first 10 or so verses of Ephesians, this verse suddenly came to life. God “… predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and his will…”. Did you see that? The preceding verse tells us that God chose us, before the creation of the world. Before Genesis 1:1, God chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Eph 1:4) His pleasure and his will was that we would be holy and blameless before him, even thought it meant Jesus would be crucified.
God pleasures in you and me. It is his pleasure that we are his children. Honestly, I have a difficult time wrapping my arms around this one. As you know I have adopted children. They were already half-grown when we adopted them. We didn’t adopt infants. I can tell you that it is not as easy for me to pleasure in them as it is for me to pleasure in my own biological, flesh and blood children. It pains me to say that, but it’s the truth. They came into my family with baggage – baggage that Dawn and I didn’t give them. They came into our family with wounds – wounds that we didn’t inflict. There are many of us who come into God’s family with our own baggage – baggage he didn’t give us. There are many of us who come into Papa’s family with wounds – perhaps wounds from our own earthly father – that we attribute to our heavenly Father.
I think God wants us to know that from the very beginning – even before the world was created – he longed for and created us for his pleasure and he has great joy in us, as only our heavenly Father can. I believe, even though we screw up and will never be perfect (until we are in Heaven), Daddy God smiles when he looks at us.
This verse has completely rocked my world the last several days as I’ve meditiated on it and repeated over and over. I’m not halfway through chapter 1 yet – and it may take a while – and already I have a few blog entries to make. I’ve just not had the time to complete my all thoughts.
Pray with me today,
Daddy, I pray today that you let the truth of Ephesian 1:5 sink deep into my heart. Help me know that I know that I know that you pleasure in me. Papa, there are days I want to throw it all in because I feel so sad, depressed or lonely. When I feel that way, I pray that your truth would rise up within me and that I would look up to see you smiling at me. Help me to know that because you pleasure in me, I am never forgotten nor forsaken. I am overwhelmed with the thought that you knew me and took pleasure in me even before you created the world. I thank you for your never-ending love and devotion. I thank you for your perfect example of Fathering. Help me share that love and that example with my own family.
Running After Papa….