How aware are you of all that you have in Jesus, of all that God wants to show you and do through your life? Here’s another way to ask it: How aware are you of all that you possess in Jesus compared to what you feel you lack? For most of us, we’re far more aware of what we lack. We think we need more money, a bigger home, more time, more intelligence, more capacity for work, and the list can go on and on.
But we don’t often take the time to list all that we possess in Christ. Paul reminds us that there is a fullness of God that’s waiting to work within us and through us — abundantly beyond what we even know to ask:
“I pray that you… may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”Ephesians 3:18–20
Too often, however, we allow the awareness of our problems to outweigh the awareness of His power. Are you aware of all you have? In Ephesians 1, Paul powerfully unveils all that’s ours through Christ. Here are three ways that he raises our awareness of who God is, which opens our eyes to all we have in Jesus:
1) I AM BLESSED; GOD IS A BLESSER
“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, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Ephesians 1:3–4
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that we are blessed. In fact, when we actually begin to look for our blessings, we become overwhelmed with them. They’re everywhere, and maybe you should start counting yours. After all, God is abundant with his blessings — not just “enough” blessings, but every spiritual blessing God has already given you. Regardless of what comes your way, you don’t have to question God. You can know for sure that He’s a blesser.
Not only are you blessed because God is a blesser, but you can be a blessing. You can bless others in many ways:
- Through kind words
- Through service
- Through thoughtfulness (e.g., text messages, letters, phone calls)
- Through intentional and personal actions to others
2) I AM A CHILD; GOD IS A KINDHEARTED FATHER
“In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:5–6
We are God’s children. He has adopted us because of the kind intentions of His will. It gives me great joy to pray over my children as their father. But I remind them of their heavenly Father whose love far surpasses my own. Even though I’m flawed and mess up, I teach them through prayer that God never will.
We are sons and daughters of God, and He’s a kindhearted Father. You are loved. You are pursued. You are worth His Son’s life…You have a good Father!
3) I HAVE GRACE POURING OVER ME
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.”Ephesians 1:7–10
We can be consumed with our pasts, our failures or what has happened to us. Sometimes, we’re convinced that our past prevents us from a future, and we allow our identity to be shaped by what has taken place in our lives or what is taking place.
Paul says that you can stop all of that — because you’ve been redeemed! Regardless of what has happened in your life, God has redeemed you for a holy purpose. You’re not someone who is full of shame and guilt. Instead, you’re overflowing with the riches of God’s grace!
