"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
Ephesians 1:2-3
Disclaimer:
These are my thoughts. I have NO Bible training. I have no degree in theology. I am just talking about what the Lord is doing in my heart and life through this journey. The only TRUTH here is God's word. The rest is my perspective. So PLEASE take all my words with a HUGE scoop of salt! Dive in and ponder.....but please don't take what I think I'm learning as absolute truth....because I may not be understanding what he is trying to teach me and I do not want to lead anyone astray!
I never know where to begin with my pondering......so I'll start with the first word.....
GRACE
Have you ever heard a more beautiful word? Grace....I LOVE IT! So much do I love it that it is Sophie's middle name. Little Miss Sophie Grace. I don't have the words to describe Grace fully. I think the offical definition is "not getting what I deserve." I just don't think that quite paints the picture vividly enough. What do I deserve? Death. Eternal separation from God. Sounds harsh but that is what I have earned by my behavior. The wages (what you earn from work) of sin is death. I have most certainly earned death. Yet I get GRACE....a gift! Why? ONLY because of God and his great rescue enacted through Jesus!!!!!! It's stunning! I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful this is. I have done some bad stuff. I have thought bad things. Said terrible things. Sinned. Ugly, nasty, horrible sin....and yet I am LAVISHED with his Grace. How beautifully amazing is that?
PEACE
The peace that passes understanding has certainly become more real to me in the past 6 months. I am a freak out, need control, type A-ish (not a complete perfectionist.....just a wanna be perfectionist) person. I am not peaceful. I fret. I run numbers. I worry. I need answers. Yet I can honestly say I have experienced a peace that I can not describe to you in these past 6 months. I have not tried to work it out on paper, which is my tendacy...and praise God I didn't do....because it wouldn't work out and I would just freak out more! It is ALL GOD. I have had a few moments....I have had a few early morning freak outs.....but in general peace has reigned....and again this is the gift of God! What a gift. An undeserved treasure!
Paul is quick to acknowledge in this passage that these are the gifts of God. I say Amen! They have to be. Experiencing Grace and Peace first hand and having tasted both of these.....they are only God. I like Paul am led to praise him! How can we not praise him? He gives us these gifts. These beautiful gifts.....because he loves us. It is so humbling. It is hard to reseve an undeserved gift from a friend. It is humbling. Yet the king of the whole world gives me gifts? Here's the clincher. He doesn't know my good side. My church side. My Sunday School sweet side. He KNOWS ME. He knows my ugly sinful heart. He knows how mean I am. He knows how self-centered I am. Who is this Savior? He not only has rescued me from my own earned destruction but he has poured out these beautiful gifts on me. What kind of man is he?
When my kids sin.....I don't do that.........What an amazing Father! I want to know him more. I want to be like him.
ANYWAY......
So to me those were the key words this week.
Now one other thing really caught my attention:
this phrase "in the heavenly realms" and this one "spiritual blessings"
I live in the "earthly realm".....and he is speaking of "the heavenly realm".
This has got me to thinking a lot about something I knew....but don't think about much.
There is another realm:
WHOOOOOOOOO-HoOOOOOOO (those are my funny ghost noises :)
But seriously....
There is more going on then meets the eye. I KNOW that intellectually...but it is really happening. REALLY....There is a spiritual battle raging. Daily. I'm reminded of the story of Job. The devil went and asked permission to test/torture Job. Guess what.....Job didn't know that part of the story. That was in the heavenly realm. We don't know all our story. There is a realm of reality we can't see from where we are.
WOW!
There is more at stake in our daily decisions, actions, attitudes then we may realize. There is a spiritual battle raging all around us. I think (REMINDER....I'm just a regular person so this may be totally wrong....) when Paul is talking about God blessing us with every spiritual blessing it may be talking about how he has blessed us and prepared us with what we need for this battle in the other realm. I'm not sure about this....so before I take this too far off base I would love to hear Shay's take on it so I'm going to check out his post now....Shay's Pondering
Have a great weekend!
Happy Pondering...
Kim
Really good stuff also - we were struck by the same words. Pretty cool words - grace and peace!
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