Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1….So, why did I just give myself a ream of Bible homework? Well, first, because I’m an unemployed teacher, with no one else to give homework to, second, because I actually enjoyed the reams of Bible homework I had at Biola, and third because I can’t help feeling that I’m getting a sweet deal by being able to do the homework without paying college tuition.
(Yep- it’s my thing. Every single time I study something, I get excited that I got to study for free. College can really mess with your thinking).
Ahem…so after that tangent, Ephesians 1.
Ephesians 1
“Praise God Your Father, because you are spiritually blessed with everything.”
Not complain, because my spirit is dissatisfied. Verses 3 through 14 promise me I have everything I need and desire in my deep heart.
I am included, planned for, and wanted in history and in eternity. God’s pleasure is to love me. I can be a good person, like I always wanted to be, holy and blameless because, if God has forgiven me, what can anyone else say about it? God’s Spirit is with me. Married, single, unemployed, employed, in school….There is no need for me to make my life meaningful and plan it alone because it is already meaningful and it has already been planned and I am already accepted in God’s love.
“Praise God….”
I’m still reading this as if it is condemnation – how do I work that one out? As if God meant to say, “You have everything, Helen, now shut up and live contently, stop bothering me and stop asking. And please stop looking so confused all the time.” At least, that is how I talk to myself when I read this passage. Well, is that really bad? I am kind of sick of being “emo” and confused. It’s understandable drama at 17, but 27? Sometime I’ve just got to give it a rest, settle, and live. But I’m not sure how to do that correctly. I still think I’m going to mess my life up, or that it is all messed up already, and I’m going to fix it “this year,” which is why I move and set new goals every year. And yet, Ephesians is giving me this sweeping sense that everything is okay. “Predestined” is suddenly a very yummy word.
Lifeline: The only reason I could be searching, seeking, hurting, and feeling unloved is because I don’t really know what I’m talking about – which is God. Paul seems to know this, which is why next he prays His readers will really understand.
“…I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know
1. the hope to which he has called you,
2. the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and
3. his incomparably great power for us to believe.”
I should probably pray this for myself, and for you, just so that I don’t sound terribly selfish.
Hope, riches, incomparably great power – these sound like things I need right now, but am probably unwilling to ask for. This chapter is saying they are already mine.
Because I am connected to Christ as His body, in me is the power that raised Christ from the dead and made Him Master of the whole world.
This story is about Christ. I am blessed because I am included with Him –on purpose. And this makes God happy.
I think I’m going to slow down and try praying this prayer for a few days before working through Ephesians 2.
watersilk 