The Promise of Glorious Living

by Angie Thomas

As I have been meditating on and wanting to really soak in all the rich truths in Ephesians, I read Ephesians 1:3-12 in the Message and was really blessed and encouraged to hear the paraphrase of this passage.  It seemed to help summarize and solidify even more Paul’s message in this portion of Scripture.  A message that is still so timely and important to us today.  May you be encouraged and blessed as you read it:

How blessed is God!  And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him.  Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.  Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.  (What pleasure he took in planning this!)  He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds.  And not just barely free, either.  Abundantly free!  He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making.  He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.  Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.*

Wow.  God has designs on us for glorious living.  I have to confess that I have struggled to experience any type of glorious living this week.  I have two very dear friends who are having significant challenges in their pregnancies.  Several good friends have recently moved away.  My sweet 6 month old baby has had a cold and has not been sleeping well.

What are the challenges you are currently experiencing in your life?  We all have them.  But God is asking us, begging us to not focus on the challenges and difficulties.  He is asking us to look up, look beyond them to Jesus and believe by faith that even in the muck and mire of our lives He has designs for our glorious living.  And that my friends, takes incredible faith that only God can grant to us.

But, I am finding that as I confess to Him that I am unable to see His glory in the trials and need His help to lift my gaze, to enlighten the eyes of my heart, He does it.  He brings peace to my heart when the turmoil around continues.  He gives strength when my body is weary.  He gives hope in even the worst circumstances because He promises to be near and be faithful.  May He pour out His grace over us and may we accept it and allow our hearts to believe in the promise of glorious living, even if our circumstances shout hard and painful!  May we live up to what we have already attained in Christ!

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*Editor’s Note: This passage from The Message certainly captures the spirit of what Paul is saying in Ephesians 1:3-10.  However, we do not feel that every detail of this paraphrase is true to the original intent of the passage.  We encourage readers to compare The Message at this point to a translation of Scripture such as the ESV available here.