So, Ephesians 1 is a prayer from Paul, who was a special messenger of Christ Jesus. Paul prays that God's grace and His peace would be ours from The Father. He goes on to pray that blessing be to the God of Jesus for Jesus has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. I thought this was really awesome of Paul. He is praying for people that are seeking his God. Anyone that is searching.
In verse 4 he talks about how God chose us. He picked us for Himself as His own "before the foundation of the world". He chose us before He even created the world. Paul says that we should be set apart for God. He planned for us to be "adopted" as His own children through Jesus Christ. This is great stuff. The world is a crappy place and so many people have crappy parents or don't have parents at all. God PLANNED to ADOPT you (me). I picture going to an adoption agency and discussing my options to adopt a child. I'm sure that I get to meet several children or at least go through files of children to chose a child that would best "fit" into my family. We need to find out if there is a connection. God didn't do that. He planned to choose you. He wants us to know that we are loved, special, and valuable and that there already is a connection between us.
In Him we have deliverance and salvation through His blood, the forgiveness of our sin in agreement with the riches and generosity of His gracious favor. Basically, we are saved because of Jesus, who took our place and died for our sin. This is our choice, if we want to be saved. If we believe that God sent His son, Jesus to do this for us and we accept it than we are in agreement of who God is and what He has done for us.
Verses 11 and 12 talk about how God made us His portion and we inherited an agreement with His purpose (will). His will is perfect and pleasing (Romans 12:2). If we choose to hope in Christ, than we are destined to live for the praise of His glory! We have this responsibility. It is like any other relationship. How does a relationship grow and prosper if it is one-sided. It won't. There needs to be two parts of a relationship. How can you accept that God sent His son to die for your sins and take your place and then not accept the inheritance to the agreement with His will, which is perfect?
Verse 13 promises us that we will receive the Holy Spirit if we are in accordance to hearing the Word of Truth, the gospel of salvation, and believe in and rely on Him. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance.
I think Paul has such a nice attitude, he thanks God for us (the ones seeking God) and prays for wisdom and revelation in the things of God for us. I just thought that was neat that Paul prayed for me. In the following verses Paul talks about God and some of His amazing qualities. You get a picture of what Paul really thought about his Savior.
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