Daily Devotional

Have you heard the sweet old hymn called “Count Your Blessings?” The opening stanza has some really good advice. It reminds us: “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

That’s essentially what Paul does in the Book of Ephesians! In 1:3, he makes the extraordinary claim that God has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing” in the heavenly realms. And then he goes on to describe those blessings throughout the epistle:
•He chose us in him before the foundation of the world (1:4)
•He made us holy and blameless before him (1:4)
•He predestined us in love for adoption as his sons and daughters (1:5)
•He redeemed us through Christ’s blood (1:7)
•He forgave our trespasses (1:7; 4:32)
•He lavished the riches of his grace upon us (1:7-8)
•He made known to us the mystery of his will (1:9)
•He gave us an inheritance (1:11)
•He predestined us according to the purpose of his own will (1:11)
•He sealed us with the Holy Spirit (1:13; 4:30)
•He made us alive together with Christ (2:5, 8)
•He saved us by grace (2:5)
•He raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (2:6)
•He prepared our good works in advance for us (2:10)
•He united Jews and Gentiles together into one new man (2:14-15; cf. 3:6)
•He made us fellow citizens with the saints (2:19)
•He made us members of the household of God (2:19)
•He gave each one of us spiritual gifts (4:7)
•He gave us leaders to equip the saints for the work of ministry (4:11-12)
•And he gave us the full armor of God (6:10-17)

So no matter how you feel today – or what your circumstances are – count your blessings, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

"New American Standard Bible (NASB)
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