​ I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
Ephesians 4:1 [ESV]
In the first half of this letter, Paul talks about the core elements of the church’s identity. We now start the second half of Ephesians which is all about ‘Application’ so for the Quiet Times for the rest of this letter, I will share the application I take away to my own life from each day’s passage. — Fair warning: this will go slow as I can’t even read one verse without stopping and seeing what I need to take away from it. —
For most of Paul’s ministry he was under some type of bondage in jails or on the run for what he was teaching. So much so that he identifies himself as such, a prisoner. As he opens, Paul exhorts us to ‘walk’ in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. Walk is translated in some versions as ‘leading a life’ or ‘living a life’ worthy…but I think that misses out on the ‘Step-by-Step’ aspect of walking. Our process of sanctification is exactly that, a journey of steps that lead to place of being closer to looking like or resembling our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The calling – so what was that again? Well, back in Eph 1.:18 Paul tells us.
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians 1:18 [ESV]
The ‘Calling’ is the Hope we receive in and through the Gospel. When we listen to what the Gospel says in Who God is, who we are relative to God’s Holiness, and what Jesus did for us because He loves us, it is the hope of eternal life, saved from a destruction and punishment we deserve. So, the life we live as a step-by-step process should be reflective of that gift we have been given in Jesus.
Application:
Every day of my life must begin with an acknowledgement of the Hope God has called me to through His grace and love. If I start every day this way, then I have an automatic heart condition that is bent toward a gratefulness of what the Lord has done for me. I am nothing, He is Everything. It is because of Him that I am something and that something is an identity IN Jesus. When the God of the universe looks at me, He sees the face of His Son. I have been bought with the ultimate price and my service should be to the One alone Who gave everything for me. That heart condition is powerful! It will affect my tone with my kids, my wife, my friends, my co-workers, and the church body God has called me to guide, guard, and grow.
Today’s Psalm:
The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
Psalms 34:15-18 [ESV]
and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
I absolutely love this blog page, from the structure it is built, to the devotion it takes each day. I love how you give a verse and go into it as a Bible study using other cross references in the book to reveal more. I love how you then tell how it applies to your life and how you use this with your walk with Christ. And the daily psalm is so good. I love it all and I love how you talked about giving it all to God because he is everything. I really loved hearing about how rooted you are in your identity with Christ and are just so grateful for everything the lord has blessed you with which is part of the reason why you praise and give thanks to him.
Wow Avant – those are quite the comments! 🙂 Thank you so much for the encouragement in your words. I always had the intention of this being something for my kids after I am taken home to the Lord one day. Glad it is something that is helpful to you on your walk as we all strive to be more like our Savior!