Grace

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

GRACE

Eph 1:1-2

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

NIV

We are still in the greeting with more thoughts about this common greeting. Although we do seem, at times, to simply gloss over these greetings or introductions to letters, we have found applications regarding “By the will of God” and about “faithful”, and now it is time to explore grace and peace and the fact that these two are from both the Father and the Son. As we have discovered before the Greek word charis is defined as graciousness, as gratifying in manner or act, but there is something that is due to grace and that is the divine influence on our hearts or life, and how that is reflected in our lives, including gratitude. When we think about being grateful to God, the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot help but think that our gratefulness goes far beyond the reason for our salvation. Although, having salvation, being redeemed from the pit of hell, so to speak, and inheriting eternal life should bring about an overabundance of our gratitude. We should live each and every day filled with gratitude, which should eliminate any complaints about anything else in our lives, after all, this life is only temporary. This world is not our home, as we should not feel at home anymore, our life is in the kingdom of God, although we still must live on this earth for a while longer. Still, while we are here, we should live with gratitude, not just for our eternal life, but for this life and how God is always working in us. He is also working for us, or we could say that God fights for us, He displays His mighty power in us and for us. Each day, God is doing something in and for us, directing us, giving us guidance, and providing for our daily bread. He protects us from evil and clothes us in His armor, which we know all the parts of the armor are descriptions of Jesus, thus the Father clothes us in Christ. He has sent the Spirit to seal us as His possessions, with all the benefits the Spirit brings with Him. In all reality, we live an extremely blessed life because we belong to God. We can be very grateful for all that He has provided for us, all that He does in us, and that each day we can be thankful for each day is the day the Lord has made, and we can rejoice and be glad in it. This is the grace of God working within us.