Ephesians 1:1-2
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Today we are starting a new series on the book of Ephesians. When I first started the devotional back in 2015, we did a study of Ephesians. However, at that time there were only a handful of people on the devotional email chain. Since then, the devotional has grown and expanded. It is now housed in a website, and the number of people who follow has grown substantially.
Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit and explore this powerful New Testament epistle that has much to teach us about being a follower of Jesus in the 21st Century.
Ephesians is about living a strategic life. You are not here by accident. God has strategically placed you in this time and place in history to work in and through you to accomplish his purposes. You are alive here and now because this is when and where the Lord wants you.
Francis Schaeffer captured it well:
“We must remember throughout our lives that in God’s sight there
are no little people and no little places. Only one thing is important:
to be consecrated persons in God’s place for us, at each moment.”
Your life matters—a lot. God has given you a sphere of influence. And as Dr. Schaeffer says in the above quote, the most important thing is that you live as a consecrated person in God’s place for you, moment-by-moment. The apostle Paul said it this way: “But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you.” (2 Corinthians 10:13)
In our consulting practice at Focus 3, we teach the “20 square feet” principle. 20 square feet is a metaphor that represents your sphere of ownership and control. It is not a physical space, and it is not literally 20 feet. Rather, it represents the reality that you are responsible for your 20 square feet of the organization where you work, of the highway when you drive, of your family and community.
It’s an important metaphor because inside your 20 feet you have control, and outside you have influence and impact. You do not control the people or situations outside your 20 feet. You do control everything inside your 20 feet.
The challenge today is that people have abdicated ownership of their 20 feet. They complain about and criticize things happening around them, but they do not take ownership of their own attitude and action. This is a recipe for disaster.
My advice is always this: Take full ownership of your 20 square feet. Don’t let the frustrations on the outside diminish the fire on the inside.
The message of Ephesians is that in the kingdom of God, there are no little people or little places. God created you to live a strategic life. He created you to be a bearer of his image and an agent of his kingdom in your sphere of influence in your time and place in history. If you trust in Christ, God has redeemed you and is living in you and through you to accomplish his purposes. This is true for “you” as an individual Christian, and it is true for “you” as the church, the corporate body of Christ.
The book of Ephesians sets forth God’s eternal purpose through Jesus Christ to create a unique community of redeemed and transformed people who live and work in a manner that makes God and his kingdom known to the world.
