God's plans started a long time ago and they have never changed.
Ephesians 1:1-6 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God's holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. 2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.
6 So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son.
Making plans is something that most of us like to do, it gives us something to look forward to and it is also a source of hope. Having a plan will help us see that there is a way out of a bad situation and give us hope that a better day is coming.
Plans also help us to be organized and efficient but the plans that we come up with are always subject to change, since we don't know what is coming up in the future, we often make plans that we soon realize are not doable. God has the advantage when it comes to planning, he can see the complete picture and he will never have to say , "Oops!"
God was the first to make a plan and as old as his plan is it is still the same plan. God's plan was conceived before creation and you can see it carried out as the process of creation was done in the proper order. If he had made the elephant before he made dry land then we may not have elephants today since they would have nowhere to stand.
Part of God's plan was to have a relationship with people that are chosen by him, that concept is one of the most difficult and least liked doctrines in the Bible, the idea that some are chosen to be his and others are not is the doctrine of election.
We see election in the Old Testament when God chose Abraham over any other man on earth, next God chose Issac over Ishmael, Jacob instead of Esau, each time God made a choice that had nothing to do with human accomplishments, God chose and that was it.
| John 6:44 For no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them to Me, and at the last day I will raise them up. |
The ultimate question of why God chose some for salvation and left others in their sinful state is one that I cannot understand with my finite knowledge. I cannot understand his ways but I do know that he is perfect in his goodness, love, wisdom, and justice.
Thank you Lord for the greatest gift ever! I don't understand why the gift of salvation was offered to me but I receive it and want to share it with others.
