Spiritual Blessings – 9

This post is Day 9 in a series of studies about “The Spiritual Blessings” in Ephesians, I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).


The Spiritual Blessings – Day 9

Ephesians 1:11-12

God also decided ahead of time to choose us through Christ … so that we who had already focused our hope on Christ would praise him and give him glory.

The Thought

Living for the praise of His glory will bring us more spiritual blessings than most other things we might do. This verse reminds me of a song with the line “The reason I live is to worship You”. I understand that God put me (and you) on the earth for His purposes, and the more I live for Him, the better I feel about everything.

Singing a worship song banishes any bad mood or grumpiness. Praising Him lifts me out of myself and helps focus on things that really matter.

It’s much easier to praise God once we really understand that He wanted us to be born. He put us in the family we were born into, with all their problems and defects, and He has a plan for every day of our lives. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us “I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope”. Isn’t that an encouraging verse to remember when things are not going too well?

Whatever life looks like for you today, God has good plans for you. If you don’t yet know Him, then getting to know Him is an exciting adventure ahead of you.

If things are not going too well for you at the moment, then pray for His encouragement, and remember that when He commissioned His followers to go and do what He had done, Jesus promised to be with them “until the end of time” (Matthew 28:20).

Action

Praise God for all He is doing around you and with you even though you can’t see it.

Remind yourself that He wants you to live “for the praise of His glory”; that is today’s blessing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *