This morning I was opening my Bible and I realized that it was falling apart…again. I just can’t figure it out. We have old Bibles passed down to us that are still in one piece, so either Bibles used to be made better or they were just a possession to hold rather than a source of truth to unfold. Either way, I fill my Bible with personal notes and really don’t want to give it up for a new one. In fact, the one I am using now is only with me because my last, favorite Bible was missing for months and had to be replaced. My current Bible has already been super-glued back together once. What’s the point?
This morning as I looked at where a section of my Bible was coming out, I realized that it was right at the beginning of the book of Ephesians. At that moment, I felt the Spirit of the Lord speak to my heart, “That’s the part that’s been slipping out of most Bibles.” I knew that was not a literal statement, but a spiritual truth.
How often do we forget the truth the book opens with in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…?” Oh, most of us recognize that we are to bless God. In fact, I've even seen people become offended if a worship service didn't include enough of blessing God. The part that is “slipping” out of our Bibles though, is that we were blessed first. We bless God because He blessed us. He didn’t just give us some generic blessing, but blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The problem comes when we think that spiritual blessings from heavenly places are something we will not experience until the sweet by and by or we think that spiritual blessings are nice but what we really need are some earthly blessings. The truth that I am determined to keep “glued” in my Bible is that spiritual blessings are superior to earthly blessings and in fact seem to precede the earthly blessings in my experience. We live an inferior Christian life if we think we can only have one or the other. I really hate the lie that earthly blessings are in some way sinful or that lack of them is some sign of heightened spirituality. The love of worldly things can really lead to sin issues, but when we see every blessing as coming from Papa God, we live in gratitude rather than greed, and our hearts are attached to the giver not the gift.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul writes, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete…” In 3 John 1:2, John writes, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” These apostles understood that relationship with the Father was not just about some distant destination and the blessings we would eventually experience. Spiritual blessings, rather, EVERY spiritual blessing has been given to us in Christ. "Has been" means it has already happened. What does that mean? I’m not sure, but I’m certainly going to believe it, investigate it and go after it in the here and now. Genesis 22 makes it clear that when God blessed Abraham, He also intended that Abraham would be a blessing.
The blessing is only touching on verse 3 of Ephesians 1. There are so many truths in just chapter 1 that we need to keep glued in our life manual. Read it. In Him we have redemption, we’ve had the riches of His grace lavished on us, we have obtained an inheritance, and were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, and the list goes on.
I don’t think I can top Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians from Chapter 1, so I will just pray that for you (and I) and ask the Father to help us keep it glued in our life, “…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. 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, 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 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…”
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