PTTS: Ephesians 1:11-14

Praying Through the Scriptures: Ephesians 1:11-14

1:11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, may be to the praise of his glory. 1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 1:14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of his glory. (NET Bible)

I ask You, my God, to remove my pessimism and the things that have happened in my life that have made me cynical towards your possession, the Body of Christ. Let me not forget that the King of Kings has promised that the gates of Hades will not overtake the Church. It will remain strong and it will persevere until the end of all time. You have set Your sovereign affections upon it and eternally purposed it to be Your choice possession, to the praise of Your glory!

Thank you for allotting the corporate Body of believers as Your inheritance. It doesn’t even seem right in our feeble minds that You should be pleased to possess us! We seem so frail and depraved. By the Word we know that we were not chosen because of our wisdom, our fame, or our beauty. Yet You have sovereignly treasured us and You take pleasure in us. Help me to grasp that truth!

Selah.

With this truth upon my mind, let me then also treasure the Body of Christ. Let me do nothing to harm my brethren. Let me never promote divisiveness or slander, but let me seek to build up one another in the Body. Grant me a relentless love towards my brothers and sisters in Christ that is according to Your love.

Thank you for predestining this to occur. Thank you for letting nothing stand in the way of Your love toward each of us as the faithful ones in the Gospel. You indeed work all things according to the counsel of your will. Forgive the terrible inventions of man’s theology that asserts the opposite; namely that your will is worked by the counsel of all things. You are sovereign. Nothing happens apart from Your decree. Let our minds trust that, as Your Word tells us clearly in this passage.

Thank you for the work of Your Spirit. It is His work that gives us assurance that we are the inheritance of God, for the Spirit has sealed us as the pledge that we will be redeemed forevermore. Teach us, as the Body of Christ, to treasure the riches of grace that we already possess, as we also long for the day that we are corporately redeemed as Your possession and we will spend eternity together praising Your mighty and holy name.