SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/29/2018
10:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Petition for Believers”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
1:17-23
Message of the verses: “17 that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom
and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His
calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and
what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are
in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought
about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right
hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and
power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also
in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and
gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the
fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
In
today’s SD we begin to look at what Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers and
since this is the first of many SD’s on this section I have quoted all of the
verses that go along with this section, however I will not be doing that in
future SD’s unless I think it is warranted, otherwise I will just quote the
verses that we will be going over in each SD.
We
have mentioned that verses 17-23, or the rest of chapter one is a petition in
which Paul prays for God to give believers true comprehension and appreciation
of what they are in Jesus Christ so that they may begin to have some kind of
idea of how magnificent and un limited are the blessings that already belonged
to them since they are in their Lord and Savior. As we look at verse 17 we see that the
petition is directed to “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.” This links God the Father to Christ the Son
in terms of essential nature. There are
some verses which go along with this essential nature of God the Father to the
Son and I want to go over them at this point.
1. Romans 15:6 “so that with one accord you
may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2. Ephesians 1:3a “Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
3. Ephesians 1:17a “that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ
4. 2 Cor. 1:3 “Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all
comfort,”
5. Phil. 2:9-11 “9 For this reason also,
God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
6. 1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us
to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead,”
7. 2 John 3 “Grace, mercy and peace
will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the
Father, in truth and love.”
What do all
of these verses show us? Well they show
us that the One to whom all glory belongs is the same in essence as the Lord
Jesus Christ. I believe that it is
correct to say that all of the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit are all of one essence.
What does
Paul write to the Ephesians and all who will read this letter about this? MacArthur writes “In essence Paul prayed that
the Ephesians would be spared from frantically searching for what was already
theirs, but rather would see that the great God who is their God is the source
of all they need and has it ready for them if they are open to receive it. Such a receptive attitude requires that God
Himself gives to you a spirit ‘of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of
Him.’”
John
MacArthur gives us a story that Warren Wiersbe told: “Warren Wiersbe tells the story of how
William Randolph Hearst once read of an extremely valuable piece of art, which
he decided he must add to his extensive collection. He instructed his agent to scour the
galleries of the world to find the masterpiece he was determined to have at any
price. After many months of painstaking
search, the agent reported that the piece already belonged to Hearst and had
been stored in one of his warehouses for many years.”
John
MacArthur helps us understand this story as he writes “It is tragic that many
believers become entangled in a quest for something more in the Christian life,
for something special, something extra that the ‘ordinary’ Christian life does
not possess. They talk of getting more
of Jesus, more of the Holy Spirit, more power, more blessings, higher life, a
deeper life—as if the resources of God were divinely doled out one at a time
like so many pharmaceutical prescriptions or were un locked by some spiritual
combination that only an initiate few can know.
“To say, ‘I
want to get all of Jesus there is,’ implies that when we were saved Christ did
not give us all of Himself, that He held some blessings in reserve to be
parceled out to those who meet certain extra requirements.
“Peter
explicitly says, ‘His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to
life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own
glory and excellence’ (2 Peter. 1:3). The New Testament teaching of salvation
is that the new birth grants every believer everything in Christ. There is consequently no need and no
justification in searching for anything more.
Though it does not do so intentionally, such searching undermines the essence
of God’s revealed truth about salvation.
The germ of this great truth is found in the words of the Preacher: ‘I know that everything God does will remain
forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it,
for God has so worked that men should [reverence] Him’ (Eccles 3:14).”
I think that
we can conclude that Paul wants to make sure that all believers who read this
portion of his prayer that they will see that they have everything that they
need in Christ, there is nothing else that they need than what they already
have in Christ, and so the important thing is to realize what we already have
in Christ and not seek something we do not have in Christ. Like Hearst who already had what he was
looking for we as believers have everything we need and do not need to search
the world over to find what we already have, we just need to continue to study
the Word of God to find out what we already have.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have heard the story that Warren Wiersbe
told and it is my desire that I do not look for things that I do not need nor
look for things that I already have in Christ Jesus my Lord.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I
trust the Lord will give mercy and comfort to my daughter Michele as she has to
bury her adopted father today. May the
Lord grant her great comfort as she goes through such a difficult time in her
life. I also trust that the Lord will provide
a job for a friend of mine who has an interview that is probably going on right
now.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jonah” (Jonah 4:2).
Today’s Bible question: “Near
what city did Rachel die?
Answer in our next SD.
11/29/2018
11:21 AM
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