Especially for You!

I love shopping on Amazon.  Nothing better than coming home to find a box with a smile on it on your doorstep!  One of my favorite features of shopping on Amazon is that I can send gifts to friends and family who live far away.   I love imagining their faces when they see the package.  Surprise!!!

Now, imagine someone leaving a large package on your doorstep. The heavy box, beautifully wrapped, topped with a handwritten note…

Absolutely everything you will ever need is in this box. These things are handpicked especially for you!

What would you do?  I don’t know about you but I would bring it inside, excitedly rip off the paper to see what was inside!  I think most of us would do that right?  What would you do next?  Would you look at it and leave it in the box or would you pull it all out of the box and begin to use it?  Well… I would be all about using the amazing gift I was given.

As I have been studying through the book of Ephesians, I have discovered that God has left us an abundance of gifts far better than the ones that can be left by anyone at any door.  He has blessed us with everything we need to live an abundant life of faith in Christ. This is Paul’s focus in the first 14 verses in the first chapter of Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:3-14 amp

^“3 Blessed and worthy of praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ”  Eph 1:3 Amp

Did you catch that?  He said “EVERY spiritual blessing…”  The King James version says “ALL spiritual blessings”.  I don’t think that leaves anything out do you?  This is how Paul starts this “hymn of praise”.  We start to see the wonderful gift… the blessings that the Lord has in store for us in the next verses..

Have you ever been so excited about something that you could wait to share it?  Well I think Paul was writing with excitement and joy over what God has done and he wanted to share it with everyone.  See how he starts with praise in verse 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

Contemplating this glorious truth moved Paul to praise. Paul’s praise includes a long list  of some of the many ways God has indeed “blessed us in the heavenly realms,” centering on what the Father has done for us in Christ.  Did you notice all these blessings start with In Him… In who? In Christ.

Can you see why Paul got so excited! We are chosen, adopted into His family, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven! God has lavished His grace on us (love this!) and sealed us with the Holy Spirit until we receive our eternal inheritance as His beloved daughters! Don’t you just want to shout out loud? Or jump up and down?  Amen and amen!

Verses 4-14 are a beautiful description of what God does when He saves us. Before salvation, we are separated from God because of our sin. But then God intervenes!  How? Let’s see what Paul says in these next verses…

• God the Father  He chose us…(v-4)
  •  He chooses us in love and calls us to hope in Christ.  The amplified version states it verse 4 this way… “just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight.”  Did you get that amazong truth? We could never do anything to deserve being part of this blessing.  It is soley His doing.
• Jesus the Son: He redeemed us…(v-7)
  • Jesus makes our salvation possible by satisfying the requirements that God’s justice demands. “In Him we have redemption [that is, our deliverance and salvation] through His blood, [which paid the penalty for our sin and resulted in] the forgiveness and complete pardon of our sin, in accordance with the riches of His grace”  Verse 7 says… COMPLETE PARDON… Can I hear an AMEN!
• The Holy Spirit… He has sealed us…(v-14)
  • The Holy Spirit applies God’s saving work to our lives. He restores our spiritual life. The Spirit’s presence with every believer is God’s promise that we belong to Him. The Spirit protects us and guarantees our eternal life to come! “The Spirit is the ^[c]guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own[purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory.”

God’s spiritual blessings for us proceed from the Father, are made possible by the Son, and are activated in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Can you see why Paul couldn’t help praising the Lord!

Oh, there is so much more in these verses we could dig out! But we must finish up for today or I am afraid you won’t come back!  I encourage you to look back on the verses we’ve read today.  Take your time and prayerfully ask the Lord to reveal to your heart the truth of these glorious gifts that are ours in Christ.

 

Before we go, let’s make some personal application.

Think about your current life circumstances – physical, relational, and spiritual. Even though God’s blessings to us are spiritual in nature, you can apply them to every single thing God has allowed into our lives. What circumstance in your life needs to be affected by His blessings today? How can the “riches of God’s grace” work in this circumstance to bring Him praise?

Contemplate the blessings of God today and respond with praise!

Til next time,