You Are Invited

He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

A Forgotten Invitation

In my senior year of high school, I was so blessed to be crowned homecoming queen. Later in the year, one of the leaders of our school’s student council came up to me and handed me an envelope that said, “Dear Miss Homecoming Queen,” on the front. Being with other students, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. I decided to put the letter in my backpack so that I could open it later in private. About one month went by that consisted of me thinking about opening the letter when I wasn’t near my backpack and me forgetting about the letter when I had my backpack with me. I continued to forget, and I continued to put it off.

Finally, I opened up the envelope on January 1 of my senior year, during Christmas break. As I began to read, I realized that I had been officially invited to participate in a football bowl parade and be on national TV and wear an elegant ballgown. My eyes continued to scan through the letter, and I quickly came to be informed that the event had taken place a couple of days previously. I'd missed it! So much goodness was planned and waiting for me to simply accept, and I missed it because I didn’t open the envelope!

Ephesians 1:7-8 tells us that in Jesus we are purposefully invited by name to walk in “redemption through his blood . . . in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” God has officially invited you and me into a relationship with Him, and in this relationship with Him, we are fully invited to be all that He has called us to be, fully invited to receive every spiritual blessing in Christ.

An Undeserved Gift

The invitation to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior is outstanding, and none of us is deserving of such a gift, but because of God’s grace, He gives us favor that we do not deserve. We are robed in His righteousness, and our sins are made as pure as snow through Jesus (Isaiah 61:10; 1:18). The gift of spending eternity with Jesus is not where our invite ends, but we are invited to dance in freedom and victory and celebration while we are still here on earth. In 2 Peter 1:3, we are told that God’s divine power has given us everything that we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. He doesn’t give us this gift of having everything that we need to walk in His calling because we deserve it but because of His “glory and goodness.” It is all about Him, and He wants us to be a part of it. We are all invited and have each been given an envelope with our name intentionally handwritten upon it.

No Longer Prisoners

Many of us have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior but are still being held as prisoners to the lie that anxiety has to stay or that fear is a part of who we are and we are simply going to need to figure out how we can manage until Jesus comes back. This lie robs us of the life that Jesus specifically came for us to live. Not only are we given salvation through Jesus Christ, but we are invited to taste and see the heart of God in every aspect of our lives.

Just as I either forgot or put aside opening up my envelope, many of us forget the blessings that God has for us while we live here on earth. Other times, we do not realize the power of the invitation, and so opening it loses its place of priority in our lives. God has invited you to His peace that “surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7, ESV)—and so anxiety does not have to lead your life. God has invited you to His joy that is strong (Nehemiah 8:10) and His hope that is secure (Hebrews 6:19)—and so depression does not have to be your label. God has invited you to freedom and faith—fear does not have to dictate every decision you make. When we are told that we have been invited to accept every spiritual blessing in Christ, this means that starting today, the authority to dance in the life of God belongs to us.

We truly discover who we were meant to be when we walk in the One who purposefully made us, and He is inviting each of us to walk with Him. The temporary invitations of this world cannot compare to the invitation that God has personally extended to us.