The Spiritual Blessings Of God

   “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1.3-4)

There isn’t a person in the world who doesn’t want to be happy. But, life has a way of robbing the joy from many of us. Our worldly difficulties and spiritual struggles seem to take center stage. We forget at times that we have a friend, Jesus, who understands the struggles we are going through, and we can approach Him in our weaknesses (Hebrews 4.15). We struggle, because we forget that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1.3). The apostle Paul wrote that as Christians, as believers, and as followers of Christ, God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. We have everything we need to get through our difficult days. We only need to draw closer to Him to receive the mercy and find the grace to help us (Hebrews 4.16).

Three times in the third verse Paul wrote “Blessed” or “blessing.” The repetition of this word cannot escape how important Paul felt about this spiritual gift. God has “blessed” us; He chose us (John 15.16). Our natural response is to live “holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1.4). It is a strong reminder where our happiness originates. But, what does it mean that we are “blessed”? Where God is referred to, “blessed” has the sense of “praise.” In 1 Samuel 25:32, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel.” But where man is in mind, it is used in the sense of “happy” or “favored,” and most frequently so in the Psalms and the Gospels. For example, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked” (Psalms 1:1); “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:42); “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3).

Ephesians 1.3-4 is a conditional statement. There is an implied “if…then” command. “If” God has blessed us in all these many ways, “then” we should live our lives in a special holy way. In “if…then” statements, the conditional expresses factual implications or hypothetical situations and their consequences. They are so called because the validity of the main clause of the sentence is conditional on the existence of certain circumstances, which may be expressed in a dependent clause or may be understood from the context.  Since we have been blessed by our Father in Heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ, we must live in faith, trust, and obedience. Don’t let the troubles of this world rob you of the most precious gift. Draw near to Him. It is a gift no one can take away unless you are willing to abandon it.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you.” (Matthew 7.7)                     Kevin