A Study on Ephesians 1:3

WEEK 3

Blessed over and over again with blessings

Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1: 3

Such is the kindness and greatness of God is that he desires to bless us even though we don’t deserve it. But when God blesses us, it is not out of a legalistic perspective in that whilst God has promised it – he feels duty bound to honour his promise – but rather it is out of his expansive love.

This is shown only and wonderfully through Jesus. Jesus is the way to the Father and therefore is the keyholder to the eternal spiritual benefits we have talked about; for instance forgiveness, redeems our lives, satisfies our desires with good things etc

One writer put it like this: “We may have as much of God as we will. Jesus puts the key of the treasure chamber into our hand and bids us: take all we want. If a man goes into the bank vault and is told to help himself and comes out with one penny; whose fault is that?”

So God not only blesses us with eternal gifts, he gives these gifts out of his love and he also gives these gifts generously (see James 1: 5 about how God gives wisdom, without finding fault). Our God is a lavish giver.

A friend of mine was once on mission in an eastern European country where conditions were poor. He was there for a week and had befriended children in the youth group he was working in. On his last day be brought a large back of chocolate bars and treats (Smarties etc) and left it in the front of the minibus. One lad later asked if he could have some chocolate to which my friend said: “yes”. Later on my friend looked inside the bag and was surprised as nothing appeared to have been taken. He found the boy and asked him whether he had had some chocolate. The boy looked afraid and said that he had. My friend asked him what he had had. The reply came: “I had a Smartie.”

He had all that chocolate; yet he only had one small Smartie.

Do we recognise that God is a generous giver? How have you experienced this?

In what way do you think you could be receiving more of God’s heavenly gifts from God?


Category: The Bridge , Thought for the week