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.
Ephesians 1:3
Jesus has finished the work of saving and redeeming us once and for all (John 19:30), and when we believe in Jesus as our Savior, God places us in Jesus’ finished work.
Today, all we need to do is rest in His finished work.
How?
By simply believing that all the work to save us and keep us eternally forgiven, righteous and blessed is already finished. This is important because there are many voices today telling us we have to work to earn God’s approval and acceptance before He will bless us, as if the cross didn’t finish Jesus’ work.
The moment we step into self-sufficiency, trying to finish what Christ has already finished, we fall away from faith. It’s time to let go of self-efforts and simply rest in the truth that whatever blessings or success you need, you already have in Christ Jesus through His finished work on the Cross.
Jesus—Our Greatest Provision
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
Ephesians 1:7
Let’s reflect on Jesus’ the finished work for a moment. At the cross, Jesus gave of Himself completely and made provision for the forgiveness of our sins as no one else could. He chose to lay down His life in exchange for ours. All our sins, failures and mistakes are forever washed away by the precious blood shed at Calvary! Truly, in Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, “according to the riches of His grace.”
The Lord’s grace toward you is bountiful and rich. Today and every day, receive His grace, His forgiveness, His love and His mercy in a fresh and powerful way.
Don’t Settle For One Time Grace
It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
Ephesians 2:2-10 The Message Bible (MSG)
One reason many of us worry and fret instead of turning to God when we face challenges is that we see His grace as limited. Just as we see time as limited, our savings as limited and the earth’s natural resources as limited, so we rationalize that God’s grace must also be limited. It is so unfortunate when modern-day believers understand the word “grace” in terms of one and done at salvation. When it comes to the Lord’s grace, we need to know that it is UNLIMITED! It is INFINITE!
That’s why God doesn’t want you to take just a little of His grace once in a while and worry the rest of the time. No, He wants you to take an abundance of it every single day for every single situation!
Don’t accept “once upon a time” grace. Take an abundance of it. That’s how we live at rest and have peace in life!
Be Rooted In Jesus’ Love
…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17–19 NIV
Jesus wants you rooted, established and anchored in His unwavering love for you. He demonstrated His love for you when He became your sin on the cross so that you could become His righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21) And when you meditate on and are rooted in His love for you, you will be filled with ALL the fullness of God.
Following is a personalized prayer, taken from Ephesians 1:3-10, 16-23; 3:14-21 in my study Bible, the Revised Standard Version: We pray these words over our life nearly every day. I suggest you try it for your and your household, too.
Blessed be the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose me in him before the foundation of the world, that I should be holy and blameless before him. He destined me in love to be his child through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on me in the Beloved. In him I have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of my trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon me. For he has made known to me in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:3-10, 16-23; 3:14-21 RSV
I give thanks and ask that the God of my Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give me a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of my heart enlightened, that I may know what is the hope to which he has called me, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant me to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in my inner being, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power 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 I may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within me is able to do far more abundantly than all that I ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
We’ve used this amazing prayer for years, both for ourselves and our family, but also for those God placed in our life as students of his Word. If you or someone in your life struggles with following the Lord, and daily accepting God’s Grace, insert their name in this prayer and faithfully speak it every day for awhile. You will be amazed by what God does when you pray His Word. It never fails
Contentment Cottage 