"which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." {Ephesians 1:6}

I hope that you can feel the rich warmth of this picture, and not the coolness of the snow. It is meant to display the golds and rich browns of the trees as the sun reflects off of them. It is still; can you sense he is working behind the scenes?  Even though these trees look dormant, dead, and lifeless, this rest is storing up the strength that is needed in the future. He is always working for us, on our behalf, so that we can thrive.


As we continue walking through Ephesians chapter one, I want to concentrate on the end of verse six. There is something very special to me here. Before my husband and I were married, we had some issues that needed to be dealt with in our lives. I was passive aggressive toward him, and he felt uncomfortable with this. I wasn't aware of what I was doing, but it came out in counseling.

I'm not saying that it was all my fault, we both had important communication faults that we were glad to get rid of. As the counselor worked with me I told him how I knew that God freely accepted me, and that I was in the Beloved. {The  New King James Version reads,"He made us accepted in the Beloved.}

I knew this was true, but I didn't know where it was in the bible. In the 80's we didn't have computers or iphones to look these things up. Isn't it funny how quickly we forget what life was like without technology?

Finally I found it here in Ephesians. It brought healing to my heart, to know that no matter what happened God would always receive me, and he accepted me even with all my shortcomings and fears.The beloved is our Lord Jesus! To realize this truth made my heart rejoice and I was strengthened in my relationship with God. We read in the Song of Solomon 6:3, "I am my Beloved's and he is mine."

When I rejoiced in the Lord, he in turn rejoiced in me. What an amazing revelation this was. I came from a broken home, where the word love was never spoken, and rarely shared. To know that God's word said that as I loved him, he loved me in return meant everything! This wasn't just another "nice" bible verse. It was downloaded into my heart by the living God.

I hope you can say to me today that God has done something similar for you. Maybe you have no idea what I'm saying but desperately want the hope that I have in God. He is a faithful Father and wants nothing more than to pour His love on you and cause you to thrive for his glory. Call out to Jesus, and ask him to forgive you of your sins, and failures and he will!