“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
~Ephesians 1:4a
I once had a conversation with a friend which reminded me of the power of egocentricity. The topic of prayer—and why we should even bother to do it—came up as my friend displayed his frustration with God when the infant-son of a close friend died after an emergency open-heart surgery and prolonged recovery efforts failed; truly a heartbreaking loss for many. My friend lamented that people all over the globe had been asking God to give this child healing, but God just did whatever He wanted anyway, ignoring the pleas of the saints.
I shared with my friend, from the perspective of Scripture, what prayer really is and is not, and how there are other aspects to it than treating God like a vending machine to serve our needs and our agendas. Our egocentricity turns the God of the Universe into the god of my universe. I like how radio personality Dennis Prager describes this as us turning God into a 'Celestial Butler.'
Ephesians 1:4 reminds that we serve a bigger God than we can imagine… One who has something in mind for us to be and to become through His work and through His determination of value; God has chosen qualities and characteristics for us to live within and into (I was almost tempted to say, ‘live up to’, but this would open the door for a salvation which is works-based).
Throughout the history of our faith, some have interpreted this verse to suggest that God chooses some for redemption and chooses others to deliberately NOT receive a relationship with the Trinity. Other (and I believe right-minded) theologians interpreted these interpreters to be wrongly suggesting a doctrine (which was rejected) called 'Double-Predestination'; that God chooses blessing for some and curse for others. It is easy to see why this view was so quickly and loudly rejected. One look at 1 Peter 3:9 is enough to confirm that God loves all and loves all deeply.
Whether this passage is concerned with predestination or not is moot. God is in control, and we need to remember that. We have free will to choose to move toward God or toward our selfish desires, and we need to remember that as well. We are all culpable and bear the responsibility and consequences—both good and bad—for our actions and inactions.
I think that when the focus is upon predestination, it becomes possible to lose sight of God’s eternal and immeasurable love, and to walk ever-more-closely to another doctrinal position which must be rejected similarly: that of Egocentricity; thinking that being chosen by God somehow becomes about us rather than about the purpose to which it was we were called and invited to participate…
We were chosen to participate in goodness, blessing and mysterious love.
You and I are Ones sent... What is the Sovereign Trinity sending us to become?
Do you have a prayer life?
- If so, what does it look like in its frequency and in its content? How much of the time do you spend in prayer asking from God or listening to God?
- If not, then why not? Be intentional and honest with yourself as to why or what it is that keeps you away from a prayer relationship with God.
In a future post, I will dive more deeply into the how different authors in Scripture framed the importance and concept of prayer for their audience (and by
their audience, I mean
every one of us).
