198. Adoption of Children
Ephesians 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
God has a will and it is good; God has a happy pleasure in carrying out His will. The will of God is grounded in the nature of God, which is at base Love. The inherent and primal nature of God is Love, and it is love that determines God’s will.His good and gracious will determines God’s predestined action: to adopt us as children. Making us obedient and loving children is God’s ultimate will, His final purpose, His happy pleasure. In the final analysis, Love determines and predetermines what God will ultimately do.
God loves children, and He chooses to adopt us as children. God’s choice of me, just me (and all the “ME’s,” like you), puts me in a special category: I am a specially chosen child of God. God deliberately chose to create me and to redeem me so that I may be His own and live with Him in His family. My God and Father carried out that plan in human history in the greatest detail, fulfilling every prediction and promise in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Father God picked me out of all the billions of human beings and adopted me as His. I give God pleasure, and, believe it or not, I make Him feel good, and He is a proud papa.
All in all, I am special to Almighty God; and so are you; and so is each child of His, even though there may be as many as “the stars of the sky or the sands of the sea.“ We don’t know how God can make each one of many special, but he does. But we don’t have to figure it out; we just believe it. That specific belief frees me to enjoy this life and the eternal life I have been given. I have no need to struggle to be noticed, to gain attention; I have nothing to prove, nothing to gain, nothing to lose by what I do and what I have accomplished. But since God does it all I just thank Him and give Him praise by casting down my golden crown, after I receive it by grace. Giving God all the credit sets me free. Yes, I am a special child of God. Yes, God smiles upon me, He rejoices over me with gladness, He quiets me by His love, He shines His face upon me, and He blesses me with extravagant grace. Luxuriate in the promise.