Hunkered Down Devotion

Ephesians 1:4-6 (Voice)
4 God chose us to be in a relationship with Him even before He laid out plans for this world; He wanted us to live holy lives characterized by love, free from sin, and blameless before Him. 5 He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus the Anointed inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and His will for us. 6 Ultimately God is the one worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in His Beloved.

Three simple, but incredibly important, words that we must never forget: God chose us.  We spend so much of our time and energy and worship thinking about our choice to believe in God and want God and to worship God.  Those are good and important choices, to be sure.  
But those choices, the choices that we make to follow, or worship, or believe in God are choices that come in response to something.  The something that all of our choices are in response to is, of course, God’s choosing of us.  Paul, in his letter to the church in Ephesus paints the picture beautifully.

Paul tells us that God wants us to ‘live holy lives’ that are full of love, and free of sin so that we can stand blameless before him.  But, God also knows that, on our own, we simply can’t do that. So, from the beginning of time, God planned for us to be us to be adopted into his family - he chose us – to be a part of his family forever before we even knew anything about it.  

Our faith may sometimes waver.  We will make the wrong choices and choose the wrong things from time to time.  But we can take heart and remember, those three words that remind us of God’s never failing, steadfast love: God chose us.  

Sharing God’s Love,
Chip  

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for all that you have done for us, and for all the choices that you have allowed us to make.  Remind us that before we chose anything, you chose us . Amen.