Bible Reading: Ephesians 1:3-8
How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Ephesians 1:3
You look in the mirror. How do you react to what you see? Pick the statement that best describes your response:
□ Sigh.
□ Please be patient. God obviously isn’t finished with me yet.
□ It’s a good thing that beauty is more than skin deep.
□ What potential!
□ I kiss myself!
You can have all sorts of thoughts-good, bad, and ugly-about yourself. Looking at yourself in a mirror is one way to see who you are. But your eyes can’t see the whole truth about you. In fact, they can’t even spot the most important facts.
A far better way to get to know yourself is to discover how God sees you. If you want a healthy self-image, God’s view of you is what you want to get. And Ephesians 1 tells you these truths about you:
• You have been given every spiritual blessing (verse 3).
• You were chosen before the beginning of the world to be without fault in God’s eyes (verse 4).
• You were picked for adoption as God’s child (verse 5).
• Your freedom and forgiveness were purchased through Christ’s blood (verse 7).
• You are marked as God’s own by the Holy Spirit (verse 13).
Because of what Christ has done for us, we know, of course, that those great things are true of us. They are truths we can count on. Paul put it like this: “I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people. I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him” (verses 18-19).
You might crack up when you look in a mirror. Or maybe it’s the mirror that cracks. But God wants you to see yourself as the incredible son or daughter you are. He wants you to see all the great things he sees in you!
TALK: What new fact did you just learn about yourself? How does it make you feel?
PRAY: God, thank you that these facts are true about us. Thank you for your goodness to us.
ACT: Share one of these absolutely true facts with a friend.
