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“He made us acceptable in the Beloved.” —Ephesians 1:6

Have you ever contemplated the wonder of this verse? I have, and it makes me weep. God took me, a wretched sinner, whose righteousness is nothing but filthy rags, and through the spotless, sinless, blameless blood of Jesus, made me acceptable in the Beloved. I always tell the Lord I am so grateful I have eternity to thank Him.

There is no end to the riches that we have in Christ. For example, He tells us in Ephesians 1:7–8, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (nkjv) “which He lavished upon us in every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence)” (amp).

Even though we have been lavished with wisdom and understanding, some of us have a hard time entering fully into being accepted in the Beloved. We all have been rejected at some time in our lives. My biological father rejected me at birth and I was raised with conditional love. This kind of love was another barrier to keep me from entering the life of freedom the Lord Jesus offers to all.

I had a happy childhood, and at sixteen I was told that the man I thought of as my dad was my step-dad. I was given no explanation of why this was so, just told to go to my step-dad and let him know it was alright with me.

It was in later life—I was married with children—before the rejection and conditional love began to war inside me. The love I had for my children was a love I had never experienced growing up; the comparison between my relationship with my parents and my children was like night and day. Next to God and my husband, my children were the most important people in my life. I realized I had never had that experience in my early life. I was always trying to “hit the mark,” to be approved, to do the perfect, anything that would bring praise and acceptance. I came close at times, but never quite all the way.

When I read verses like Ephesians 1:6, I knew I couldn’t measure up to God’s criteria. Therefore, how could He accept me? Through these years, the Lord was teaching me I would never be worthy, and oh, what joy, to finally see He had done it all for me—and for all who accept His sacrifice.

These were the years of depression and oppression. The Lord taught me these two varmints were spirits. I was to put on the whole armor of God and get into spiritual warfare (see Ephesians 6). “We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4 nlt).

When I was 55 years old, the Lord caused me to remember back to my early childhood and my grandfather. It was my grandfather who gave us kids unconditional love. As I thought about him and how he loved us, through all our aggravations, I began to accept God’s unconditional love for me. Oh, the glory of freedom that brought into my life. I had one person in my life who revealed God’s unconditional love, and it was enough to encourage me to believe God for His love for me. I saw the tremendous importance that we, as parents, show our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, so that they experience God’s unconditional love flowing through those closest to them.

The verse God used to set me free once and for all from rejection at birth—and make no mistake, conditional love is another form of rejection—was Philippians 3:13b. “But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (esv).

God uses words like lavish and abundant and excellent to try and show us His unfathomable love for us, His desire to lavish His blessings on His children. When we hit that bump in the road, let us turn to Him and say, “Father, what is it You want to teach me? Help me learn quickly. Thank You, that You have lavished me with wisdom and understanding.”

To me, one of the greatest riches of Christ is the fact that God loves me with an everlasting love, and that love is unconditional. Hallelujah!