Our Response to God's Love

(Today is the first day of the 18 part devotional on Ephesians.  I will be updating this blog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Email me if you want this email sent to your email address.  joshua.wheeler03@gmail.com)


When I was 18 years old, I decided to quit waking up for church. I wasn't mad at God, nor was I hurt by the church; I just thought church was irrelevant. I was in college at the time, and learning so much from my
professors and friends that I thought Sunday morning lectures could wait until I was older. This is fairly common for people my age, in fact, a recent study by the Barna Group revealed that 60% of young people chose to leave the Church during college. I admit that I learned a lot from those years, but many lessons were painful and unexpected.  I now bear spiritual scars which remind me that some decisions can cause deep wounds.  At first I didn't understand why I made so many mistakes, especially considering my background. I grew up with parents who brought me to church every Sunday morning and dropped me off at youth group every Wednesday night. The problem wasn't my church attendance, it was my motivation. I only went to church because my parents. They wanted me to go, and I never took responsibility for developing my relationship with God.  My weak faith made it easy to forgot God once I got to college, but the experience also taught me a very important life lesson: I need to focus on my relationship to God.  As I look back, I am able to see that I could have avoided so many hurtful decisions if I only would have made God a priority. This is because many of my mistakes stemmed from insecurity and a desire to be loved and
accepted. I now understand that God has always loved and accepted me, but I couldn't see it until I started focusing on Him.

I have learned that humans can only focus on one thing at a time, so I try to focus on God as frequently as I
can. I do this by reading the bible in the morning, asking God to remind me about Him throughout the day, and going to church on Sunday. In essence, I am making a choice to prioritize God above anything else, and then asking Him to help me honor that choice.  As we spend this week reading through the first chapter of Ephesians, let's take notice that Paul spends a whole chapter focusing on God before focusing on us. It
seems as though Paul is demonstrating that God was the top priority in his life, his family and friends were second and ministry work was third.

Read Paul's introduction in Ephesians 1:1-8 (NLT):

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.

I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious

grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

Answer the following questions:

1. What does this passage reveal about God's love for us?

2. What do we learn about our freedom?

3. What aspect of God's love is hardest for you to understand or appreciate?