Ephesians 1:1,2 – Conversations with God

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, I am who I am by Your will.  I’m a husband to my wife, a father to my children, a father-in-law to their spouses, and a grandfather to my grandchildren by Your will.  You have placed me in these roles to be a blessing and a mediator of Your grace and peace.  I am writing an epistle to them  with my life and with my teaching.  You have called me to this responsibility and I want to accomplish it by Your will.

Thank You for this privilege.  Help me to fulfill it.  I am woefully inadequate to accomplish Your purposes.  Teach me what I need to learn.  Humble me when I fail.  Rejoice with me when we succeed.  Let me be Your faithful servant and partner in this holy endeavor.

Lord, I thank You that You want to bless me with grace and peace.  I desperately need both.  I need grace for all the ways I fail You and those around me.  Your grace teaches me to do better and it teaches me to be gracious to other sinners like me.

I need Your peace in the middle of a very troubled world where pain abounds.  I need to operate out of Your peace so that others may see there is hope in the God of heaven.

Father, You are God and You are ours.  You have humbled Yourself to let us call You “our” Father.  You continue to parent us, Your wayward children, with love and grace and mercy and appropriate sternness.

Jesus, You are the Lord, the second person of the Trinity, who with Your Father grants us grace and peace on the basis of Your sacrifice and resurrection and ascension.  Even now You are our advocate with the Father when Satan accuses us night and day before the Throne.  Thanks, Father and Son, for taking up our case.