Devotional thoughts tagged as: 'Ephesians'
Focusing on Prayer
In Ephesians 6:18 we read about the need to focus on prayer — With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the spirit, and watching with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. (RSV) It seems the apostle Paul realized humanity's natural laziness — how we seldom pray all things to completion. We get right up to receiving great blessings in prayer and we just let it drop or get sidetracked with less important tasks.
Why is constant prayer by us so necessary? Consider this, we are not dealing with flesh and blood but with principalities, powers and the spiritual hosts of wickedness.
Prayer Promotes Personal Holiness
Go through your Bible and you will find it stated every spiritual blessing is obtained by prayer. In Psalm 139:23-24 God searches us and knows our hearts, tries us and knows our thoughts, brings to light the sin that is there in us and delivers us from it. Psalm 19:12-13 tells us prayer cleanse us from secret faults. Check out Second Corinthians 3:18: But we are all reflecting as a mirror the glory of God, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory.
How do you reflect God's glory in your life?
Christian marriage is a lifelong covenant between a man and woman who are subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21) It is more than a contract. Covenant in contrast to contract involves giving of self unreservedly in love to the other. The couple encounters the risen Christ daily in their love for each other. They make a little family within the household of God, a little church in the body of Christ.
The Indwelling of God
There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope
of your calling, one lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
—
Ephesians 4:4-6
One of the discoveries we discern when we pray is the closer we come to God, the closer we come to all our sisters and brothers in the human family. God is not a private God. The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is also the same God who dwells in the inner sanctuary of others.
Thus we recognize God's presence in our own hearts and in the hearts of others, because the God who has chosen us as a dwelling place gives us the eyes to see the God who dwells in others.