In Love He predestined us for Adoption

A couple weekends ago, I was sitting in my hotel room, reading through Ephesians 1, and stopped at verse 5 and pontificated for a bit. "In love he predestined us for adoption as sons in Christ Jesus." Below is my journal
entry for that day. I hope you find it encouraging:

"God specifically chose us, ME. His love is so great that He chose ME, not for anything I have done, will do, but because He loved ME. Inherent in MY identity is that God loved me. ME. He doesn't love me because Christ makes me better. He called me prior to me being in Christ. God loves me for ME and can adopt me into his family because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. (I by no means am stating that salvation is anything other than In Christ ALONE. This statement is merely that God loves ME and Christ's work on the cross restores that love relationship. Without Christ, eternal punishment would be our destiny)

God doesn't look at all his Children and see a bunch of Jesus's running around. No, he formed you in your mothers womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. God adopted you, ME, because, for NO other reason, than the fact that he LOVES ME!

To say he only loves Christ in me is to cheapen the incredible truth of the Imago Dei. If God only loves me because of Christ, he would have created a bunch of them. I believe we don't fully grasp the magnitude of God's love because of the doctrine of Total Depravity.

In that doctrine, which I believe and hold to firmly, we tend to lose sight of the fact that God loved us so much that he created mankind after his own image, different from all other creation. Sin has corrupted this image, but the foundational truth stands forever: God loves us specifically, because he created us specially."

Ponder these thoughts with me. Let the sheer magnitude of this truth permeate your soul. Let this truth be a balm for your soul tonight. God, the Creator of the Heavens and Earth, Loves YOU for YOU. He first loved YOU! He formed you in your mothers womb. He loves you! Your identity is rooted in God's steadfast love for you!!! He who did not spare his only son, but graciously gave him up for us, YOU!

The implications of these words are enormous. In love, he predestined YOU for adoption in Christ Jesus. The implications of these words expels all fears, crushes all doubts and replaces it with perfect peace and solid faith.