10. 2018 Dev. Eph. 1:3. Spiritual Blessings! Read verses 1-14. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Ephesians 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ”.
Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians with God’s will for him and addressing God’s holy people, “the faithful in Christ Jesus”. Paul is addressing us! The letter to the Ephesians is generally considered a circular letter meant for followers of Jesus wherever they are found. Paul here enlightens us with the divine purposes of God for those who follow Jesus and God’s divine purpose for the church. If you can, get your head around verse 4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight”. We are in God’s plan from forever to forever, simply put that means that everything that has happened or will happen to us in time and space is the result of God choosing us before creation. Predestined to be brothers and sisters of Jesus! Really?
How is it possible to be redeemed, forgiven, adopted as brothers and sisters “lavished, with all wisdom and understanding”! Neither Paul nor do we comprehend what is called “the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, —to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” By the power of the Spirit, in a mysterious way, we have responded to God’s choosing us before our birth. Suffice it to say that we are blessed to be part of something so much bigger than ourselves and that the church is so much bigger and more important than this present world! But then when we think about it, what is bigger than being chosen by God before He created the world? Praise be to God!
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