A Very Good Place To Start

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3

“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start,” Maria the musical nun cheerfully encouraged the von Trapp brood in The Sound of Music. “When you read you begin with A-B-C. When you sing, you begin with Do-Re-Mi….” And when you praise, you begin with G-O-D. Starting anywhere else messes up the tune and mixes up the words.

As Paul begins his letter to friends in Ephesus and we begin our look at this book of Ephesians, praise immediately takes center stage. Paul almost seems in a hurry to get past the obligatory salutation and greetings to get to the praise, and who can blame him? How hard it should be to hold back applause for a God “who has blessed us…with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” The abundance of this bounty spills over in the following verses. God has chosen us to be holy and blameless (vs4). He has lovingly adopted us as His children (v5). He has ransomed us through the payment of Christ’s blood (v7). He has forgiven our sins, lavished us with grace, and let us in on His purpose for the world (v8-9). We don’t deserve these blessings. We didn’t earn these blessings. We aren’t worthy of these blessings. And yet He has heaped these blessings upon us “in order that we…might be for the praise of his glory”(v12).

We praise Him because He has blessed us, and He has blessed us so we can praise Him. Just as the Maria’s “Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do” begins and ends the same, so should our praise. The notes of our emotions will move up and down the scale of life’s circumstances, but our tone should stay the same. Our God deserves our praise. He has earned our praise. And He is worthy of our praise. Nothing else and no one else even comes close.

Begin each day, each project, each conversation, each appointment, and each activity with praise. Then end with the same. Spoken or silent, your tune of admiration will be heard by your Father, and you’ll never be off-key.

G-O-D. He really is a very good place to start.