Adopted for Life-chapter 5 (redux)

I love when reading of God's word intersects with what is going on elsewhere in life. I know that God speaks to us through His word, but sometimes, it is evident that His word is timely and specific.

Throughout chapter 5 of Adopted for Life , Moore touches on the many decisions that we encounter in the adoption journey. I was struck by his chapter conclusion, "One's life story is typically made up of little decisions...The most important thing for you to know about these decisions is that whatever you decide, you're not going to wreck God's plan for your life. Whatever your views about how God's kingship fits with human freedom, you know as a Christian that God is at work in bringing about his good purposes for you. Your decisions fit, mysteriously, into that overall plan." (p 144).

At the same time as I was contemplating this life of decisions, I began studying Ephesians again. In the first chapter, Paul wrote about predestination. Actually, the power of the first chapter slipped by me the first time, but when I went back and looked again, I was blown away. Beginning in verse 4, it reads, "In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will." Through the metaphor of adoption, we learn that God chose us for His family according to His purposes, but I wondered, what does this passage say about our decision to adopt?

Here is what I came away with:

It is easy to get overwhelmed by all of the decisions we face. Sometimes they are little ones, like "chocolate or vanilla?" and sometimes they are big, scary, life altering decisions like "should we adopt?" The implication of those decisions become so much easier to deal with when we recognize that our sovereign Lord has a grand plan. As Christians, we were lovingly adopted into God's family, through Christ's death and resurrection, according to the purpose of His will "before the foundation of the world" (verse 4). So, too, the decisions we make every day are a part of God's plan and, as Moore points out, we're not going to "wreck" it. We should take comfort in our own powerlessness knowing that we have a God whose good and perfect will far exceeds our own fallibility.