God’s Rich and Glorious Inheritance

Meditations on the Book of Ephesians

May 18, 2020

God’s Rich and Glorious Inheritance

I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.

Ephesians 1:16-17

Read: Ephesians 1:15-23

This passage is one of the richest, most glorious passages of scripture ever written.  I hope and pray three blessings for you as you take the time to meditate on this passage. First, if there is even the slightest doubt in your mind about how God feels about you, carefully plumb the depths of verse 18:

“I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.”

In the previous passage Paul discussed your inheritance from God. Here Paul proclaims that you are God’s rich and glorious inheritance!

Next, this passage points to the surpassing abundance of our new life in Christ. I am reminded of the story of Mr. Yates. In the 1930’s, during the Great Depression, Mr. Yates owned some land in Texas. However, because of the depression he was very poor – living in poverty and struggling just to feed his family. He was about to lose his land because he was unable to pay the taxes on it. Then an oil company approached him and said they believed there might be oil under his land. The oil company offered Mr. Yates a contract to allow them to drill for oil. He signed the contract and in a short time the company struck the biggest oil deposit discovered up until that time in North America. Overnight Mr. Yates became a billionaire. Or did he? The oil was there all the time; Mr. Yates just didn’t know it was there. Like Mr. Yates, many Christians just do not understand what God has done for them, and thus they live in spiritual poverty. Please take time and meditate on this entire passage. Allow God to open your mind to His grand and glorious hope in Christ for you, His rich and glorious inheritance.

The third blessing will be your prayers for yourself, your friends and family. Contemplate exactly what Paul is praying for his friends in Ephesus. Make a list of each prayer subject and then shape these petitions into your own personal prayer. I dare say you will be much closer to living the life in Christ, to living as God’s own rich and glorious inheritance, if you allow these petitions to shape your prayer life.

My Takeaway: If you think it is too much for us to grasp that we are indeed God’s rich and glorious inheritance, consider this: “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:19-20).

Nothing is impossible for God; trust Him to help you believe!

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.