Do you sometimes look around and see others who seem to have so much more than you? More

wealth? More adventures? More stuff? More friends? More time to play? I trend toward contentment

most of the time, but occasionally that little whiney flicker of discontent pops into my thoughts. And

then… I come across a Scripture like this one:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual

blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

Wow! Did Paul just say that we are blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing? I do believe He did! So, let’s

plow into the first part of Ephesians and count some of those blessings! And let any flicker of discontent

disappear -- because blessings-counters are too busy to allow such nonsense.

As we start counting our spiritual blessings together, remember that all these blessings are because we

are “in Christ” – these are not blessings unbelievers are experiencing. An unbeliever might just roll their

eyes when we list some of these blessings that we cherish so much.

1 – Because we are in Christ and Christ is in us, Paul says we are “saints” (Ephesians 1:1). Paul uses the

term to mean fellow Christians, consecrated and set apart for God’s purposes. You and I are saints, not

because we are “sinless” – but because of Christ, we “sin less.”

2 – We are blessed in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Sometimes we may not “feel” blessed – but that doesn’t

change the truth that we are blessed. The evil one loves to distract us from or make us doubt the

overwhelming blessings that are ours; but if we fix our eyes on Jesus, the blessings will be obvious.

3 – We are chosen in Christ (Ephesians 1:4). Other people may have rejected you and considered you as

“less than” – but you, my friends, are a chosen people. He picked us out for Himself as His own

(Ephesians 1:4 Amp). Let’s stand tall and claim our identity in Christ.

4 – We are adopted as God’s own children through Christ because it pleased Him (Ephesians 1:5 Amp).

Visualize with me the smile on His face when the adoption was complete and He said, “This child is

MINE!”

As we wrap up our time together today, my prayer is that you are in awe of the love that brought about

the spiritual blessings that are yours in Christ Jesus. Come back tomorrow, and we’ll continue to count

those blessings.

By Judy Shrout

Judy is the wife of Tom, mother of Heather, mother-in-law of Jim, grandmom to T.J., Ainsley, and

Maggie, and grandmother-in-law to Piper.