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. ~ Ephesians 1:3As I read the first chapter in Ephesians, verse 3 stands out to me. We are blessed in the heavenly realm with spiritual blessings. I began to dig further - what are these blessings? As I continued to read I jotted these down:
BLESSINGS:
- He chose us to be holy & blameless in His sight.
- He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ
- He freely gives us His glorious grace (because He loves us!)
- We have redemption through His blood
- We have forgiveness of our sins
- He lavishes us with all wisdom and understanding
- He marked us in Him with a seal, the Holy Spirit. This is our deposit, our guarantee of our inheritance!
PRAYERS FOR US:
- Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding: This is God's desire, that we have revelation of Him so we may know Him better.
- Eyes of our hearts enlightended: As we receive more wisdom and revelation of God and who He is, our hearts will begin to understand the hope that He has called us to.
- Riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints
- Incomparably great power for us who believe
- Power: Incomparably great power - I love this. He has a mighty power that He wants to give each of us access to through Him. This is the exact same power that -
- raised Christ from the dead
- seated Christ at His right hand in the heavenly realms - far above all rule, all authority, all power and dominion, far above every and any title ever given or which will ever be given! It is the power that puts all things under Christ's feet and makes Christ head over everything for the Church/His Body.
- God has spiritual blessings for each of us, but we must draw them out by pursuing God through prayer.
- Everyone needs prayer, even the best of Christians. When we hear of the needs of other Christians, we should pray for them, lift them up to the Lord in prayer. Paul continually prayed for other Christians and he continually asked for the prayers of others. None of us is above the need for prayer and none of us is above the requirement to lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul prayed for other Believers while he was in prison and being abused. None of us are ever in such need ourselves to where we should think only of ourselves and not take the time to pray for others.
- We can only get to know the Lord more through His mighty power. Jesus is the One who supplies us with everything we need, so the more we pursue Him, the more spiritual blessings we receive.
- No matter who powerful those around us or the circumstances around us may seem, we need to remember that when we pursue God we have access to His power which is greater than any other.
1 comment:
Angela, thanks for this powerful post. I admit sometimes I look at others I view as powerful and take for granted their need to be surrounded by prayers of others (like little me).
Post a Comment