The Everyday Prayer

 Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:3-12 (day seven)

When Paul wrote this introductory passage, he wrote it as all one sentence. It was meant to be an overture to set the tone and themes to be discussed throughout the letter. These are melodies we will be hearing over the next 13 weeks. Read through it again with this thought in mind. What do you hear? What stands out to you?

I hear something very clear, Christ has reconciled us to God. We have been chosen before the beginning of time, before we could make a choice ourself. God chose to love us. In a world where love has become conditional, God chose to love us unconditionally and to purchase us with His very own blood, knowing full well that not everyone would choose Him in return. In doing so, He gives the opportunity to those who choose Him to see glimpses of heaven here on earth. There is no greater love than this!

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:3-12(day six)

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus,^[a] who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. ² May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Ephesians 1:1-2

From what we know about Ephesians, it was a letter Paul sent to several churches. This is important for a few reasons. First, it means Paul did not write this letter to address specific problems, questions, or concerns (like 1 Corinthians or Galatians). This allows Paul to describe what it looks like for a church to grow up in Christ. Second, it means this letter is for us (FBCSA) in ways his other letters are not. From the very moment Paul began to write Ephesians, he intended it to be received by many existing churches, and by God’s grace and providence, it has come to us.

So, when we read Ephesians, we have every reason to take it personally. It encourages and challenges us to grow up in Jesus!

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:3-12(day five) 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”

How are you?  It’s a question we ask and get asked a lot. Sometimes it’s a cordial question- passing by and offering a quick greeting. Often the answer to that question is “fine” or “ok”. Sometimes though, it is a more deep and meaningful question. And the answer is longer and more personal. I have a friend at our church whose answer to that question never changes.  “Blessed and highly favored”. I always ask him so that I can hear him answer. His answer helps and encourages me. It reminds me that I too, as a believer in Christ am “blessed and highly favored”. It presses into my mind and heart the certainty of my eternal reality in the midst of my current circumstances. Paul was doing the same thing. In the midst of his imprisonment, he himself, wants to remember and also remind his readers that they are blessed.

Pauls directs their attention towards God because God is deserving of our thanks and praise, and also because articulating our blessings helps us enjoy and understand them even more. So, let me remind you that “You are Blessed”!!  Amen?

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:3-12 (day four)

Paul’s opening of Ephesians reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. Near the end of the movie (spoiler alert!), when Dorothy and the gang finally reach the wizard, they pull back the curtain only to realize that the “wizard” is a small, unassuming man using gimmicks in order to appear powerful.

Paul is also pulling back the curtain, but instead of disappointment, we’re met with wonder and promises beyond our wildest dreams. He pulls back the curtain of the cosmos and we find that not only are we adopted as sons and daughters of God, made pure and blameless before him by the sacrifice of his son, but that this was God’s plan from the beginning. Long before the creation of the world, God loved us and planned to live with us for eternity.

Ephesians lets us in on the plan that God has had all along, and we find that Christ is not only the center of that plan or the climax of the story, but he is the beginning, middle, and end, the one in whom all things on heaven and earth find their origin and conclusion. Through Christ, we see God’s love for us that was there from the very beginning, and his plan to live with us for eternity.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:3-12 (day three)

“In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will.”

Here Paul shares with us a glimpse of not merely God’s creative work, but God’s desire. Welling up within God, Paul says, is a deep affection for the human beings he has made. No, more than that. The deep affection was there even before he made man. The intention to draw human kind close to himself was already there by the time God fashioned creatures in his image. The human race has never existed without God’s longing to nurture and treasure.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:3-14 (day two) also we have obtained an inheritance vs. 11a

Have you been the recipient of an estate settlement or financial inheritance? Perhaps it was expected and well planned and communicated. Regardless, it was likely a blessing to have more without having “earned” it in the usual sense. Paul reminds us that the inheritance we receive when we are found in Christ is an eternal fountainhead. Many of us understand pensions, 401k accounts, and investments which will have a level of depreciation once distributed. This is not how salvation works. Through Christ we are inheriting eternity. This kind of lavish gift is attainable for everyone. This is also a distinction from most inheritance. There is no need to hoard or hide what we have freely received. The hope is that we make everyone aware of the freedom found in Christ Jesus.