Sons and Daughters
/Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? We spend so much of our teenage, young adult, and if we’re being honest…many of us into adulthood, our marriages and even after kids, trying to ‘find ourselves’; to ‘find our tribe’; to figure out who we are. Have you ever read Ephesians 1? Maybe the question we should be searching to answer is to whom do we belong!
Our independent, head-strong, ‘never show weakness’ culture right now would tell you “You don’t belong to no one!”, but our souls and our constant searching, would suggest that we desire the opposite. We not only want to belong, but we need to belong, to know we are loved and serving some purpose. Enter Jesus.
Ephesians 1 is a letter from Paul to believers and dives right in (vs3) with Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons (and daughters) by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
A couple thoughts come to mind. If you are a saved, baptized believer in Jesus then you should look no further than this to understand where you belong. No matter what happens here, in this fallen world, you are an adopted son or daughter of the Most High King. Period. No one can take that from you, so don’t let them try.
If you are NOT a saved, baptized believer and you are struggling to find where you belong, friend, you were created by God, in His image, for the purpose of bringing glory to Him. If you are searching, perhaps that is your Maker tugging at your heart. Get into His Word, pray, seek Him and you will find Him, as Matthew 7:7-8 says.
If you are in a difficult season right now, or struggling to step confidently into your role as child of God, take heart…He’s not going anywhere! In fact, He gives us a few more words through the rest of Ephesians 1 to take hold of on this journey to grasp how deep and high and long and wide is the love of our Lord Jesus Christ….
we are chosen
we are redeemed
we are adopted
we are forgiven
we have wisdom and insight
we have an inheritance
we are sealed with a promise of the Holy Spirit
we are saved
Don't you for one second doubt the love the Father has for you, even if you’ve never called on His name! He’s there when you do, no matter what you’ve done, what’s been done to you, what’s been said about you….you are chosen, redeemed, forgiven, sealed and saved! I have no better words to close than with Paul’s own from Ephesians 1:15-21:
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease 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 to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, they eyes of your heart being opened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at HIs 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 age but also in that which is to come.
In hope,
Jules