Praise to Our God 
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven!
Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us
to live with him and to be
his holy and innocent and loving people.
God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us
to be God's own adopted children.
God was very kind to us because of the Son he dearly loves,
and so we should praise God.

Christ sacrificed his life's blood to set us free,
which means that our sins are now forgiven.
Christ did this because God was so kind to us.
God has great wisdom and understanding,
and by what Christ has done,
God has shown us his own mysterious ways.
Then when the time is right,
God will do all that he has planned,
and Christ will bring together
everything in heaven and on earth.

God always does what he plans,
and that's why he had Christ choose us.

Ephesians 1:3-11
Holy Bible, Contemporary English Version, American Bible Society, New York, 1995