Lavished with Grace

“He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the kind intention of His will,
 to the praise of the glory of His grace,
 which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

 In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.
Ephesians 1:5-8a

Because of the kind intention of His will, God adopted you!  Not because of your great talents, your amazing beauty, or your usefulness to Him, but just because He is kind and He chose you!  You are His son or daughter to the praise of the glory of His grace.  In other words, you are His and your adoption shows us the glory of God’s grace.  In that we, and others, should praise God. And He did it freely!  Without payment due!  Nothing is owed!  Not your works, not your being good – nothing!

 It was all accomplished through the Beloved, Jesus, the first born son, the sacrifice. It is through His blood that we are able to be not only adopted, but made righteous and holy.  What’s really cool, is that we did not merely squeak by!  But rather, God accepted us according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.  When I think of something being lavished, I think of butter being very liberally spread upon a piece of bread. (I know that’s weird, but oh well!)  When I lavish butter on bread, I do not scrape some of it off, or check to make sure that it is barely covered. No!  I put as much as possible on it until it stands up in the middle and is spread from edge to edge, then I lavish jelly on top of that!  That is God’s grace to you -  piled high, fully covering, and then some more on top of that!

Praise Him and worship Him.  He is your God and He is good!