Chosen By Grace

Chosen By Grace

Some look and say what a shame.

God looks and says,

I can restore that to the glory I originally had in mind!

 

What is your favorite color?

What is your favorite thing?

Who is your favorite person?

There is something I know

about all of those things.

You like them around you and
you give them special attention.

It is pretty easy to identify

the things people favor

by the way they treat them.

 

My neighbor has restored several Model A Fords.

People all the time are praising him

for the fine job he did in restoring them.

They have become his pride and glory.

Our being chosen by God

before the foundation of the world

and God choosing to adopt us,

 is to the “praise of His grace.”

We are chosen by God’s grace,

 in fact it says in Ephesians 1:7,

“the riches of His grace.”

God is rich with grace,

 that means He is rich with favor.

It gets better…

 He extravagantly or lavishly

spends His grace/favor on you and I.

Hold on there is more…

With His favor He has for you,

comes all wisdom and understanding.

As an added bonus,

you also get the knowledge of His will

which removes the mystery.

God’s grace and favor for you and I

comes in Christ Jesus.

God’s choice for you and I

is to be blameless and holy;

that seemed impossible until Christ.

God never planned on you

rusting away in some junk yard.

God’s favor, that wonderful grace,

comes to light as Jesus restores us

to the place of holiness.

God has chosen us,

so let’s be His pride and glory.

The fact that He had grace on you

is reason to praise Him.

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 1:3-10 NIV

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in the heavenly realms

with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

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 predestined us to be adopted

as his sons through Jesus Christ,

in accordance with his pleasure and will—

6 to the praise of his glorious grace,

which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

7 In him we have redemption through his blood,

the forgiveness of sins,

in accordance with the riches of God's grace

8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will

according to his good pleasure,

which he purposed in Christ,

10 to be put into effect when the times

will have reached their fulfillment

— to bring all things in heaven and on earth

together under one head, even Christ.

Ephesians 1:3-6 The Message

How blessed is God!

And what a blessing he is!

 He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ,

and takes us to the high places of blessing in him.

4 Long before he laid down earth's foundations,

he had us in mind,

had settled on us as the focus of his love,

to be made whole and holy by his love.

5 Long, long ago he decided to adopt us

into his family through Jesus Christ.

(What pleasure he took in planning this!)

6 He wanted us to enter into the celebration

of his lavish gift-giving

by the hand of his beloved Son.