Love Week: Because He Wants To

“In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians 1:4-6)

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Whether you care about that or not, we hope you care about God’s baffling, perfect, life-changing love for you.

Try hard not to start arguing in your head about the whole predestination debate if that’s something that bothers you. Instead, notice the first two words: “In love.” God adopted us as His kids because He loves us. Because it made Him happy. Because He wanted to.

Did we deserve it? No. How could we deserve to be loved that way, to be loved like God loves His Son Jesus? How could we expect that? How could we deserve it? We couldn’t. We shouldn’t. He gave it to us for free.

God loves you. He wanted to be your Father since the beginning. He’s happy to have you in His family. You are loved.

Think: How important is it to you to be convinced that the God of the universe loves you like a dad loves his child? How does that change your heart towards Him?

Pray: Thank God that He loves you, that He adopted you because He wanted to, because it made Him happy.

Do: If you know a wise Christian dad who has adopted a child, ask him how he feels about making the choice to do that and how he feels about his son or daughter.