WATCHWORD:
14 His presence within us is God’s guarantee that he really will give us all that he promised; and the Spirit’s seal upon us means that God has already purchased us and that he guarantees to bring us to himself. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God. 15 That is why, ever since I heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and of the love you have for Christians everywhere, 16-17 I have never stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you wisdom to see clearly and really understand who Christ is and all that he has done for you. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share. I want you to realize that God has been made rich because we who are Christ’s have been given to him! 19 I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him. It is that same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in heaven, 21 far, far above any other king or ruler or dictator or leader. Yes, his honor is far more glorious than that of anyone else either in this world or in the world to come. 22 And God has put all things under his feet and made him the supreme Head of the Church— 23 which is his body, filled with himself, the Author and Giver of everything everywhere. Ephesians 1:3-14
Meditation:
Blessings and More Blessings
The apostle Paul never heard the song Count Your Blessings. But it’s clear from his writings that he takes its message to heart at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians. Here at the start of the above passage, he leads off with a note of praise to God for his blessings, then proceeds to count them one by one, so to speak.
Look at the passage. It is filled with phrases that should give us a sense of confidence and peace that God is in our lives. First is God’s guarantee and the assurance that we are eternity-bound. The tone is one of gratitude for His love for Christians “everywhere”.
One of the things that I find interesting about Paul’s list of blessings is that it bears so little resemblance to what most of us would likely come up with. I would guess that our lists would contain lots of positives in our lives and the lives of those closest to us.
Paul’s praise to God is for spiritual blessings rather than the physical things we generally identify as blessings. And you can tell from his wording that these blessings are in the heavenly realm rather than in the physical world we see around us. There is no doubt in our minds that family, home and health are indeed blessings. What Paul is interested in here is something even greater. Is his looking at blessings that are unseen, but eternal. These are the blessings he cares about and maybe we should as well and learn to praise God for those very things.
Take another look at the passage. Once you get beyond Paul’s praising we see him identify at least some of the spiritual blessings. It’s hard to categorize God’s blessings as we do with our own. It is clear that one of the blessings that Paul is praying for is the wisdom to see and clearly understand who Christ is and what he has done for us. That is not simply a “I believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior” commitment, it is opening a relationship with God, thus it is our being in Christ.
What does it mean to be “in Christ”? First of all, that is God’s decision for us when we embrace Jesus. Then, because we are “in Christ”, we have redemption and forgiveness because of God’s grace, God’s amazing grace. Got it? So be it.
Bulletin Board:
Marvelous Grace
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.
A Morning Prayer:
Lord, may nothing separate us from You today. Teach us how to choose only Your way, so that each step will lead us closer to You. Help us to walk by the Word and not by feelings. Help us to keep our hearts pure and undivided. Protect us from our own careless thoughts words, and actions. And keep us from being distracted by our own wants, our own desires, our own thoughts on how things should be. Help us to embrace what comes our way as opportunities…rather than personal inconveniences. Finally, Lord, help us to rest in the truth that you have Great Love for us. You love us, warts and all. That is amazing. But what is most amazing is that the Savior of the world would desire a few minutes with us this morning. Lord, help us to forever remember what a gift it is to sit with You each morning, like this. Amen.
