Passage Read: Ephesians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 1:18-20
Thought
Paul's prayer is always instructive. His desire for these believers and therefore me and every other believer he might know of is that we know the hope to which we have been called, the riches of God's glorious inheritance in us saints, and His incredible power for us who believe. He goes on about the power, that it is the same power that brought Jesus back from the dead and raised Him to the highest place at God's right hand! It is an inexhaustible power, a power that nothing can hinder, nothing can defeat. It is the same power that raised us up with Christ and has seated us with Him in heaven. It is the power that will make good the promise of eternal life; it is the power that makes the hope to which we've been called an assured promise and not just a wishful dream. It is this power that makes God's inheritance in the saints a genuine treasure, because it is His power that enables and guarantees that His people are able to walk in His ways, and be the holy people He created us to be. It is this power that makes it not only possible for me but entirely expected that I can and will walk in righteousness and holiness. It is His power that changes me from helpless sinner to victorious saint.
Application
This is the power that makes it possible for me to walk in obedience to all God's instructions. It is God's power that enables me to master sin and defeat it, and to submit gladly to God's Word and Spirit to live as they direct. It is God's power that makes it more natural for me to walk in God's ways rather than the ways of my flesh, so that identifying as a sinner becomes so wrong, but as a saint so marvelous and right. Not by my power, but by God's. So I must know this power and trust this power, have confidence in it and so confidence to hear God's instructions and do them. It is not impossible for me, not as a child of God who has access to this incredible power! I can live a holy life today, by the power of God that raised Christ from the dead and me with Him.