Daily Devotional

Have you heard the sweet old hymn called “Count Your Blessings?” The opening stanza has some really good advice. It reminds us: “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

That’s essentially what Paul does in the Book of Ephesians! In 1:3, he makes the extraordinary claim that God has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing” in the heavenly realms.  And then he goes on to describe those blessings throughout the epistle:

• He chose us in him before the foundation of the world (1:4)
• He made us holy and blameless before him (1:4)
• He predestined us in love for adoption as his sons and daughters (1:5)
• He redeemed us through Christ’s blood (1:7)
• He forgave our trespasses (1:7; 4:32)
• He lavished the riches of his grace upon us (1:7–8)
• He made known to us the mystery of his will (1:9)
• He gave us an inheritance (1:11)
• He predestined us according to the purpose of his own will (1:11)
• He sealed us with the Holy Spirit (1:13; 4:30)
• He made us alive together with Christ (2:5, 8)
• He saved us by grace (2:5)
• He raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (2:6)
• He prepared our good works in advance for us (2:10)
• He united Jews and Gentiles together into one new man (2:14–15; cf. 3:6)
• He made us fellow citizens with the saints (2:19)
• He made us members of the household of God (2:19)
• He gave each one of us spiritual gifts (4:7)
• He gave us leaders to equip the saints for the work of ministry (4:11–12)
• And he gave us the full armor of God (6:10–17)

So no matter how you feel today—or what your circumstances are—count your blessings, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation