Living Blessed

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

LIVING BLESSED

Eph 1:3-7

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. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

NIV

What does it feel like to be blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ? Do we actually live in accordance with that blessing? What is every spiritual blessing? We would have to believe eternal life is a spiritual blessing, but then it is also a physical blessing, as when Jesus was resurrected he walked and talked with people and even told Thomas to touch him. So our eternal life may be spiritual, but it is also physical, as we will walk on streets of Gold, eat of the fruit of trees and live in an abode Jesus is preparing for us. So we are back to all these spiritual blessings in Christ. Our life is indeed blessed just knowing Christ, but do we live like it? Are we living with all the joy, the peace, and the love of Jesus? Does our continence reflect having every spiritual blessing in Christ, or do we walk around reflecting doom and gloom or, for that matter, do we reflect the world? If we are happy and we know it our face will surely show it. If we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every, not some, not just a few, but every spiritual blessing in Christ, and we are, then our life will surely show it. Let us lift up our face, let Jesus shine within us, let us reflect the joy of the Lord. Let us live reflecting all those blessings. Now as for this being chosen in him before the creation of the world, we cannot leave out, to be holy and blameless in his sight. It is not that he chose us and did not choose them. He chose us, mankind, before he created the world, to be holy and blameless in his sight. Because he is God and knows all things and is not limited to time and space, when he chose, decided, predestined, predetermined before he created the world, he knew his first man, Adam would fail to be obedient and yet he still created him to be holy and blameless in his sight. But, God also knew all that man would do, the sin that would prevail in man’s life, and he predetermined the only way for man to be holy and blameless in his sight would be through Jesus Christ. He knew before it all started that the only way we would be adopted as sons would be through Jesus. That was his plan from before the beginning of time as we know it. We can see this plan throughout the Old Testament. We can see Jesus all throughout the Old Testament. God did all this because of his great love for his creation, man, after all, he created man in His own image. We are the image of God. If we want to see God, then we merely have to look in ourselves. This is the will of God, it is his will and for his pleasure, he has blessed us in heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. This is not about us, it is all about God, about his will, his pleasure and we are the recipients of his will and pleasure. We are blessed beyond what we can even fully comprehend. So let us live as blessed as we are.