I hear the statement “I am blessed” a lot. I hear it from athletes, actors, and ordinary people.
I am not sure what all the people mean when they say “I am blessed”, but I know that it is a true statement.
In Ephesians 1:3 Paul says, “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.”
We are blessed and the blessings are in Jesus.
Paul then shares eight blessings we have in Jesus.
Ephesians 1:4a
For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Blessing #1: God chose us to be holy and blameless.
God’s desire is for you to be living a life that is focused on Jesus, using your life to honor Him with no glaring moral weaknesses.
We cannot be holy and blameless based on our own ability. We are only holy and blameless by the work of the Holy Spirit. We are holy and blameless in God’s sight only by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1:4b-5
In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.
Blessing #2: God has chosen us to be His children and to experience His love as our Father.
God loves you. He loves you with a love that is unconditional, with no boundaries, and eternal. He loves you no matter what.
God’s love for us has made you and me His children.
We as God’s children are loved, protected, and provided for by our Father.
Ephesians 1:6
To the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.
Blessing #3: God has given us grace.
This grace is His grace.
We don’t deserve it and He doesn’t have to give it to us. We have no right to grace; it is all based on God’s desire to have us experience His love.
This grace is glorious.
God’s grace is a demonstration of His glory. Grace shows who God is and how He works. And He is glorious!
Ephesians 1:7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
Blessing #4: God has provide us with redemption.
God has bought us back from the power of sin by the blood of Jesus.
Redemption means that God has forgiven us.
Redemption means that we are freed from the penalty of sin.
Redemption means that we are freed from the power of sin.
Ephesians 1:8
That He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding
Blessing #5: God has given us wisdom and understanding.
God has given us the ability to use our God given skills in building His kingdom - wisdom.
God has given us discernment and insight into His will.
God wants you to use what He has given you to honor Him; that is why He gave it to you.
God wants us understanding His will so we can do it.
Ephesians 1:9-11
And He made know to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.
Blessing #6: God has shown us His will.
God wants us to know His will so He reveals it to us.
God doesn’t play games with us. He reveals to us His person, His purposes, and His ways.
It is God’s pleasure to reveal to us His will.
It is revealed to us in God’s timing.
It is revealed to us so that we understand that Jesus is Lord over all creation.
Ephesians 1:12
In order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.
Blessing #7: God gives us hope so that He will be praised.
Hope is the confident assurance that God will do what He says He will do.
Hope means we have complete faith in Jesus, and faith in Jesus glorifies God. Praise is simply recognizing that God fulfills every promise He makes us. God’s faithfulness leads us to publicly and loudly praise Him.
Ephesians 1:13-14
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of His glory.
Blessing #8: God has sealed us by His Holy Spirit.
When we surrender our lives to Jesus as Lord we are given the Holy Spirit and He seals us, He glues us, to Jesus.
He makes sure that we are connected with Jesus and that connection is never broken. The Holy Spirit is our security in God.
We as followers of Jesus are blessed.
There is one thing that all these blessings have in common. They are all centered Jesus.
These blessing are not based on
Our Behavior
Our Goodness
Our Hard Work
They are all about what Jesus has chosen and is choosing to do in and through our lives. Just as the ending of verse 14 says, “To The Praise Of His Glory!”
Blessed By Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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