Scripture - Observation - Application - Prayer
Today's reading took me a while to get my head around in the NIV version, so I grabbed my Message bible and read that instead. Fortunately, it made a lot more sense!
In this chapter, Paul describes how God had all of us in mind before time began. That He had always intended for us to be adopted into the family through Jesus and that He took great pleasure in this! I can imagine God with a cheeky smile, rubbing His hands together, plotting the greatest love story ever told, all because He loved us from the word "let there be light"!
This playful and loving side of God is one that I feel many people don't grasp at first. This really is the grace of God - that He loved us before we even had the chance to stuff up and He still loves us and will always love us, no matter what! His love is a gift. No one can earn it or get away from it. Paul doesn't tell the Ephesians "OK, so until you are perfect and never sin and work super hard beyond human capacity, then I'll praise God because you have earned your salvation!" Of course not! Instead, Paul understands that God loves us so much that He couldn't help but give us the gift of salvation.
This is the radical thing then: God only gave us this gift because He loves us. It's not that He took pity on us, or gave it hesitantly, or anything. No, this gift of grace was a symptom of the immense and unfathomable love He has for us. So naturally, in response to this love, I feel compelled to love Him back! Loving God also means loving His creation with the same grace as He loves His creation. And so out of His love for me, given by grace, I naturally want to love everyone. Get it?
It's like energy in physics. Energy is always conserved, it is never created or destroyed. In the same way that energy came from one place and now flows all around the world, empowering nations and making life possible, so too does love, which comes from God and flows through us to everyone around us.
So my prayer today is that I can remember and be amazed at this gift of grace. I ask God that I can not help but love on everyone around me in response to His love. I pray that I can do this through His love and strength, and bring life to others this way. I thank God for the simple fact that He loves me! Amen to that!
[Read Ephesians 1: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%201&version=MSG]
Hey Mack! i'm not too sure what to comment but will just write some things. cool analysis, especially the physics = )
ReplyDeletethe message version was a bit easier to read, and how it puts the church in the last verses is pretty cool.
I just watched a video on Christian growth, which you might have seen. It was on how instead of looking inwards and saying how am i going in getting close to God, and what can I do. instead, focussing on God and His love for us,which goes to loving others. which sounds like it should be easy but it can be easy to be distracted.
like what you were saying with loving creation and God when we become a Christian we have restored relationships with God, ourselves, others and creation
hope this makes sense
Hey Alastair, thank you for commenting/just writing some things!
DeleteI haven't seen that video but I'll try and find it...
Yeah I love how it says that the church isn't peripheral to the world, the world is peripheral to the church. So true and mind blowing and awesome!
I think that it is important to strive to be close to God but i guess that's only part of the bigger picture of loving others for the glory of God no ourselves.
:)