*Quick message before we get into today’s devotional. A number of Christian leaders have reached out to me and expressed interest in establishing a monthly meeting to discuss the challenges of leading with wisdom and courage in today’s environment. If you are a senior leader in your organization, and you have an interest in joining other Christian senior leaders to grow in wisdom, please email me. These meetings would be conducted via Zoom.
My email: Tim@Focus3.com
Ephesians 1:17-18
“… that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…”
What Paul is emphasizing here is that we belong to God. We are his family and his inheritance. We are the Lord’s special people. It is his plan—and his delight—to work in us and through us to accomplish his purposes.
Scripture is clear that the nation of Israel was God’s inheritance in the OT.
“But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.” (Deuteronomy 4.20)
“But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” (Deuteronomy 32.9)
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance.” (Psalm 33.12)
Just as the nation of Israel was God’s inheritance in the OT, so the church, which is the new Israel, is God’s inheritance in the NT. The apostle Peter clarifies this for us: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2.9)
The practical implication is that if we make ourselves fully available to the Lord, he will work in us and through us during our time in history, and we will know and experience the riches of being his people and inheritance. But if we hold back because we are afraid to let God use us, we will limit ourselves to a narrow rut of spiritual experience, and we will find that the Christian life gradually turns drab, dreary, and dull.
We need to understand the mission—the adventure—that awaits all who make themselves available to God. This is Paul’s appeal in Romans 12.1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
The Lord invites us to give ourselves to him day by day in service to his kingdom in every situation of life and work. And as I said last week, as America navigates this time of great social confusion and conflict, it is more important than ever that the Christian community walk in wise, faithful obedience to the Lord’s call on our life.
As we shall see during our study of Ephesians, being the Lord’s inheritance means two things: challenges now in this world, and joy in the perfect world to come. In addition to inheriting incredible riches of the perfect to come, we also inherit the conflict that currently exists on earth between God’s kingdom and the kingdom of darkness. We are warriors as well as heirs. We will enjoy the glory of the perfect world to come, and in the meantime we are engaged in spiritual battles in this present fallen world.
Trust God, do the work, and fight the good fight.
