Correct Perceptions

 

Isn't it amazing how God works. My last post was about incorrect perceptions, and this morning I read Ephesians 1, which lists truly amazing things that God has made available to us. The interesting thing is that in verse 18 Paul prays that the perception of our minds may be enlightened. (This is in the HCSB so I'm not sure what your translation says.)

Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,

To understand the context, we need to look back at what Paul wrote in the previous verses. These verses contain big promises, huge concepts. The words aren't technically superlatives, as in big, bigger, biggest, but the connotations of these words are even bigger than biggest. A biggest that is only possible when the words come from Almighty God. As I read the words, I cannot think of any way to elaborate on them. They speak entirely for themselves. I may try to comment but it's not necessary that I do so.

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

Every Spiritual Blessing. EVERY. SPIRITUAL. BLESSING. Think about that for a minute. That's beyond my comprehension. 

Ephesians 1:4-6 For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

Holy and blameless.  In love. Adopted. His favor. His glorious grace. Favored us with in the Beloved.  We know from reading other scripture that no one is righteous. We are all sinners. Yet through Jesus we are holy and blameless in God's sight. This was His plan before he created the world. We are adopted as sons and daughters, joint heirs with Christ Jesus. Jesus took on human form, became the perfect sacrifice for our redemption, because He showed favor toward us. He showed us His glorious grace in Christ Jesus. The Beloved loves us.

(Let me take a minute to talk about how this verse regarding Calvinist theology. I believe that scripture is clear that God gave us the opportunity to choose to accept His amazing gift of redemption. I also believe that because He is ALL KNOWING, He knew before He created the world who would accept Him and who would reject Him. He chose before the foundation of the world to provide for our salvation through His sacrifice on the cross. Even though He knew before time began that Adam and Eve would choose to disobey and bring sin into His perfect creation, He still created them and had a plan in place to save us. He chose to give us this gift. His hand is outstretched, holding this precious gift available for our taking. We must reach out and receive the gift He has chosen to give us. We see in other scripture that we are predestined to be conformed to His likeness. That means when we accept His gift, are adopted into the family of God, it is God's purpose that we grow more and more like Him.)

Ephesians 1:7-8 We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

He redeemed us through His blood. He forgives our sin. But look at these next words. The riches of His grace. Lavished on us. All wisdom and understanding. When He died for us, He lavished His grace on us. I don't think I've ever lavished anything on anyone. But God lavishes His grace on us.

Ephesians 1:11-14 We have also received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory. When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.

We receive an inheritance in Him when we put our hope in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. We hear the Truth. We Believe in the Truth. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Our purpose is to bring praise to His glory as His Spirit lives in us.

In verses 15-19 Paul lets the people at Ephesus know what his prayer is for them: that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Paul prayed that God would teach them His precepts. We know that this is the theme of many of the Psalms.  He prays that they would know the hope of His calling and the glorious riches of His inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of his power, and his vast strength. And that they would know in their minds the correct perception of Who He Is. 

Last post we talked about incorrect perceptions. Today we see many correct perceptions. We must read and study the scriptures to gain correct perceptions. 

If you have had incorrect perceptions of God, if you have rejected Him because of those perceptions, if you do not have all the wonderful blessings that we read in Ephesians 1, My heartfelt prayer is that you will accept the gift He so freely and lovingly offers you. 

If you know the Truth, have been lavished with God's grace, my prayer is that this blog will encourage you to study scripture to learn more and more of the knowledge of God, that your perceptions will continually grow more closely aligned with Who He Is.  This is also my prayer for myself.