10/26 - Ephesians 1 - Are You Childlike and Free?

³ Blessed be the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, who

has blessed us in Christ with

every spiritual blessing … ⁴ in love.

⁵ He destined us for adoption as

his children through Jesus Christ,

according to the good pleasure of his will

… ¹¹ In Christ we have also obtained

an inheritance … ¹² so that we, who

were the first to set our hope on Christ,

might live for the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1

 

I have a ministry colleague from England. When he arrived on our shores, one of things he noticed right away is that we Americans define ourselves by what we do.

 

For example, when we meet someone, what’s the first question we ask? “What do you do for a living?”

 

And he said, in America, there are a lot of “just-a’s.” “What do you do?” “Well, I’m just-a clerk in the grocery store.” “I’m just-a mechanic at the dealership.” “I’m just-a stay-at-home mom.”

 

He says, “You never hear a doctor say, ‘Well, I’m just-a heart surgeon.’”

 

Our value, as most of us see it, is based on what we do.

 

Therefore, this friend has learned to answer this question counter-culturally. When someone asks him what he does, he says, “I’m a prince.”

 

People’s jaws drop, but the half believe him because of the cool English accent and because he says it so earnestly!

 

“Yeah,” he says, “I’m a child of the King. I have all the wealth of the Kingdom waiting for me. I have a mansion just waiting in my name and all the sidewalks are paved with gold.” He goes on and on … until it dawns on people that he’s not talking about an earthly Kingdom! And if he is the child of the King, his Father is God!

 

Brothers and sister, you are a child of the King. Child of God, you have been adopted in the Lord’s family. As today’s verse say, you have an inheritance waiting in your name. As it says in John 14, in your Father’s house are many mansions. (I think yours is the third on the left.)

 

I love today’s full passage from Ephesians 1:3-14 (and you get just a glimpse of God’s wonderful treasures in today’s verses). When we are children of God, we are “loved,” “blessed,” “chosen,” “forgiven,” and “redeemed.” We are “adopted” into the King’s family, and “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit,” we are “inheritors” of the abundant richness of the Kingdom.

 

And how generous is Father God, our King? He doesn't just give us these things, he “lavishes us” with these gifts!  

 

Our sign for today is “children at play.” And that’s a sign for you! Laugh. Pray. Live joyfully. Be childlike in your wonder.

 

This is a positive step toward freedom. When we’re stressed – in bondage, enslaved – we’re often too serious. And deadly seriousness can suck the life out of us.

 

Don’t let it!  

 

You’re a child of the king. You’re a victor already. The worst this world can do to you is make you go to heaven fifty minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years early … and heaven is a win. So live from the perspective of victory “so that we … might live for the praise of his glory.”

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who’s most child-like

when creating and enjoying

family holiday traditions