Celebrate Love

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. (Ephesians 1:3-4)

The first chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is a powerful one, praising God for His many blessings to the church. This opening doxology reveals how God had chosen the church as part of His plan of salvation for the world from before creation. You and I are part of a tremendous cosmic plan which God, in His eternal wisdom, foreknew. Jesus is the culmination of a long history. Paul, the former Pharisee, had his eyes opened by the Holy Spirit and he connected the dots from Adam and Eve, through Abraham and Moses, to the Christ. You can sense Paul's joy in his writing.

Grab your bible and take a moment to read the whole of the chapter. (Or click this link https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Eph+1&version=NRSV)

Here's a summary of the kind of blessings for which Paul praises God.

• We are chosen to be holy and blameless.
• God chose us as a result of His love.
• We are adopted as God's children through Jesus
• God freely bestowed glorious grace upon us.
• Through Christ we have redemption (set free from sin an death) and forgiveness.
• Revelation of God's plan of salvation
• We've obtained an inheritance in Christ 
• We are set aside to live for God's praise and glory
• We are marked in the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance.

Paul prays that the church might grow in love and wisdom, to have our eyes opened to understand God's many blessings. 

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places... (Eph 1:17-20)

With all these many blessings and more, God adds to it great power through our hope in Christ. That power is power over the grave. It's resurrection power. It's death defying power. That power working in us is grace, which God loving lavished upon us.

Don't you just love the way Paul characterizes God, our Father, with such joy. Paul uses phrases and words like "lavish," "according to the good pleasure of his will," "according to the riches of his grace," and "freely bestowed." I get the image of a happy and generous father handing out gifts, with a twinkle in his eye, as he watches his children's excitement and enthusiasm. We can certainly sense Paul's enthusiasm.

Celebrating the love of God is at the heart of Christian worship. Thanksgiving and praise are expressions of our celebration. Worship is more than one hour on a Sunday. Worship is a lifestyle. We are chosen to be holy as God is holy, and to live according to God's goodness so that we might be blameless before Him. A heart that seeks to glorify God is one that desires to please God. Cultivate a heart of praise that continually celebrates God's love and His many blessings.

Cultivate a heart that celebrates and you will know joy more fully and frequently. Reading Paul's words reminds me of of amazing blessings we often don't think about in our ordinary day. There's always reason to be thankful and joyful. God is good all the time. God dotes on us as a loving Father. Jesus fills us with His perfect love and the Holy Spirit reminds us that this great love will be ours forever. How can we not celebrate every day at every moment?!

Paul ends His section on revealing God's plan with a prayer for the church to grow in our comprehension of God's love.

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:18-19)

Our knowledge of God's love leads to being filled with God, who is love. Our knowing moves beyond the head into the heart. The love of Christ is beyond our ability to fully understand, but with the help of the Spirit we will have adequate knowledge of the One who deserves all our praise and glory. We are set aside as God's own children for the sake of His praise and glory. We are made in Christ to celebrate love at all times, and by doing so, to be a vessel of divine love blessing the world.