Chosen and Adopted for a New Year
A Devotional Reflection on Ephesians 1:3–14
The start of a new year invites reflection. Many of us enter January carrying resolutions, regrets, hopes, and unanswered questions. We wonder who we will become in the months ahead and whether we will finally be different enough, faithful enough, or disciplined enough.
Into that uncertainty, the opening words of Ephesians speak a steady and gracious truth:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing…” (Ephesians 1:3)
Before Paul says anything about what we should do, he reminds us of who God already is—and what God has already done.
Grace That Goes Before Us
In the United Methodist tradition, we speak often of prevenient grace, the grace that goes before. Ephesians 1 echoes that conviction. Paul tells us that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, not because we had proven ourselves worthy, but because love is who God is.
This does not mean God picked a few and passed over the rest. Rather, God’s heart from the beginning has been to form a people in Christ, a family marked by holiness, love, and grace. God’s choosing is not about exclusion; it is about invitation.
As this new year begins, that matters deeply. We do not step into the future alone or unseen. God’s grace has already arrived ahead of us.
Adopted Into a Family
Paul goes on to say that we have been “predestined for adoption as children through Jesus Christ.” Adoption is one of the most tender images in Scripture. It reminds us that salvation is not merely forgiveness of sins, but entrance into relationship.
To be adopted is to belong, not as a guest, not as a project, but as a child. Adoption tells us that our identity is not something we earn over time; it is something we receive by grace.
For many of us, the new year brings pressure to reinvent ourselves. But Ephesians invites us to start somewhere else, not with self-improvement, but with assurance. We live this year not trying to become God’s children, but learning how to live as those who already are.
Living Into What Is Already True
Ephesians 1 is filled with future-facing language: inheritance, redemption, hope, sealing by the Holy Spirit. These are promises still unfolding, realities we are growing into.
United Methodists hold together this beautiful tension: God’s grace claims us fully, and yet our lives are a continual response to that grace. We are adopted—and we spend our lives learning what it means to live like beloved children.
This new year offers us that opportunity again:
To live less from fear and more from trust
To measure our days not by productivity, but by faithfulness
To see the church not as a place we prove ourselves, but as a home where grace is practiced
To the Praise of God’s Glorious Grace
Paul reminds us that all of this choosing adoption and inheritance is “to the praise of God’s glorious grace.” Our lives become doxology when we receive grace and let it shape how we love, forgive, welcome, and hope.
As this year begins, may we rest in this truth:
Before we set goals, before we make promises, before we take our first steps forward, God has already claimed us in Christ.
And may we live the coming days not trying to earn belonging, but joyfully discovering again and again that we already belong.
Grace and peace for the year ahead.
In God’s grip,
Pastor Chuck Church
