by Pastor Rich Carlson

The third "prison epistle" was addressed to the believers in Ephesus, a coastal city in Asia Minor (that’s western Turkey). Different than the first two letters, this one was addressed to people whom Paul probably knew well because he had visited their city several times in his travels. The message is universal: Christ and His church have an exalted relationship that ought to bring some very practical results in daily life and worship.

As I read Ephesians chapter 1, I was taken by the powerful reasons Paul gives for praising God:

• God "has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ" (1:30).
• God chose us in Jesus before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight (1:4).
• God predestined us to be adopted as His children through Jesus Christ (1:5).
• In Jesus we have redemption through His blood (1:7).
• We have our sins forgiven in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (1:7).
• God "made known to us the mystery of his will" (1:9).
• We have been given hope in Christ, the word of truth, the promised Holy Spirit, and a guaranteed inheritance (1:12-14).

What more could I ask for?

Then Paul says to the believers in Ephesus, "For this reason…I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers" (1:15-16). What he prayed for reminded me that prayer is not so much a self-centered request as a means of focusing on what and who is most important in my life.

Paul prays that the Father would send the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they might know Him better. He prays that they might know the hope to which God called them, the riches of God’s glorious inheritance, and His incomparably great power for those who believe (1:17-19).

What a great prayer to pray for others. God worked all this out for me through Christ. Christ makes it all available to me. And I can pray for the people in my life so they too can have access to all that is available from God, through Jesus.

You are blessed, chosen, predestined, redeemed, forgiven, full of understanding, with the hope, the Word, the promise and the guarantee—if you want them! That is what’s available to all of us.

Rich Carlson is campus chaplain at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. “God Is Faithful” is adapted from the email devotionals he writes regularly for the Union College family. Rich enjoys filling his life with God, his family, and especially his five grandchildren.