I love fall. I love the colors, the coolness in the air, and the bonfires. When the weather starts to turn a little cooler and I can wear my jeans and sweatshirts, I fall into an instant good mood. Summer's funa and all, but nothing beats fall. I realize that I haven't posted on the Ephesians portion of this blog for awhile now. I still don't have my laptop back, and it just meant that I had to set up everything again when I finally got a loaner laptop (they had already had my computer for 4 weeks at that point... it'll be 6 this Saturday). But, I am back, for now at least (this loaner seems to be rather tempermental at times).
So without further ado, let's jump back into Ephesisans 2!
Ephesisans 2:8
"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God."
Allow this verse to penetrate the walls of your heart. Let it resonate within you. This is what our realtionship with God really all comes down to. "God saved..." Really you could stop the verse there and be done. It pretty much sums everything up and it's a complete sentence. Because that's really what's important here... "God saved..." I love that this verse starts with what God does. I love that it could technically end there too, but it doesn't. God explains. Because, let's face it, us humans can be down right dense at times. Sometimes it takes reiteration of the point for it to sink in (and even then it can take us awhile to grasp it). And since I love to look at synonoms to further understand, check this out: God rescued, God delivered, God redeemed, God reclaimed, God restored, God bailed out, God liberated, God unshackeled, God salvaged, God saved... Wow. The picture that all those words together paints is breath-taking. Do you see it? Is your heart as enthralled as mine is?
What makes my heart beat even faster is the who he did this for... now add the next word of the verse onto all those synonoms for saved: God resuced YOU, God delivered YOU, God redeemed YOU, God reclaimed YOU, God restored YOU, God bailed out YOU, God liberated YOU, God unshackeled YOU, God salvaged YOU. Doesn't that make your heart beat just a little bit faster with the knowledge of how much God loves you?
The last part of this verse makes me aboslutely giddy: "...it is a gift from God." I don't know about you, but I love gifts. Birthday gifts (which is happening soon), Christmas gifts, gifts for absolutely no particular reason... I love them all. And I don't know about you, but usually I only give gifts to people I really care about. If you're not that important to me, you usually don't get a gift (as always there are exceptions). But think about God's gift in that light. You are important to God, so he gave you this gift of salvation. Wow.
But what are you doing with this gift he's given you? What am I doing with this gift he's given me? Am I living my life as if I have been given a precious and priceless treasure (which I have been)? Or do I treat it like the kid who opens up underwear on Christmas morning? Do we treasure this gift or do we let it sit in the top of our closets for years because we feel we have no use for it?
Sadly, too often, I think that I take this gift for granted. I don't live like the gift I've been given is precious to me. Too often I live my life on my terms without regard to the gift that God has given me.
What about you? How are you living? This week, together, let's live with a constant gratitude for the gift God has given.
1 comment:
Great post :)!
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