My devotional text nowadays is on Psalms. But, today my heart is filled with the message of God's original plan & purpose for man based on Eph 1:3-5. Having chosen us (In Christ) even before the foundation of the world, here God points me back to the history of time, before Sin interfered mankind. It brings me back to the time when God have un-interrupted loving fellowship with his chosen & beloved Adam (before his fall). Oh! How complete that feeling would be, to be unlimitedly loved by God! The contentment, the joy, the completeness feeling & fulfilment that Adam would have enjoyed in the fellowship of his creator and lover. Humanness can't fully imagine and thought of. That was God's original plan for us (man). But, for his rebellion (disobedient to established law) against God man lost all access to God's loving fellowship.
But, thank God who still pursues us according to His eternal love and purpose for us. No enemy's work can stop His purpose. He works for us to establish our relationship with Him, in Christ. God's loving plan for us works out according to his purpose and He has chosen us in Christ, his Son even before we know we are born sinners. God had pre-destinate us in Christ to become his children. Oh! What a love!
What God pre-destinate us He works it out for us too. God sent his Son Jesus to fulfill all that is required of Him for man. Jesus paid the penalty of our Sin by his chosen death on the Cross. In Jesus' death on our behalf, God is satisfied with us again. The righteous requirement of God on us had been met in Jesus. Oh! No amount of words is enough to adequately thanked God for this love??
Not only did Jesus' death brought us back to right standing with God, in His death Jesus also opens up God's eternally-planned blessings to us again. God not only meant us to inherit His Kingdom to come in eternity future, He also plans for our complete enjoyment with Him while on earth by faith in Him. Jesus opens up again (the once closed) heavenly resources for our earthly needs.
This Christmas, shall we once again reflect on these many truths about God's story of His love-relationship again? For His love is eternal and original. We often got entangled by the deceptive philosophies the world has produced, to missed out on the eternal and loving plans of God for us. Shall we join the Apostle Paul's prayer points as when he prayed for the Ephesians found 1:16-21 "Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come".
For His' glory, may God answer our sincere prayers according to His eternal love & purpose for each one of us! Amen.
