Ephesians 1:3

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,

     One of the more popular hymns at my church is called “Count Your Blessings”. The song encourages us to count the blessings that God has given us, particularly in times of hardship. In times of deep distress and sadness, we can forget about how many good things we have in our lives. By focusing on the things that we do have, we can take joy in even the most difficult of situations. While this song tends to bring thoughts of physically blessings to mind, it is important that we also remember that God has given us even greater blessings: those of the spiritual realm.

     The concept of money with children seems to be slightly misunderstood. They seem to know and understand that it is special. People make a big deal about it. They know that it can buy them stuff. Yet it would have been easy for a person to trade their nickel for my dime because the nickel was bigger. Or sometimes children may trade two pennies for a nickel, because after all, two of something is better than one, right? On top of that, they miss that money is a part of every day life. It can be a powerful and even life altering influence. Most of people’s lives are spent trying to earn money. Having money can open doors for you. Yet children do not really see that. All they grasp is that it seems important to people, it can be shiny, and it migh get them the toy they want.

     Our understanding of spiritual blessing can be equally short sided. Rather than blessings, we often times think only of the spiritual blessing God has given: salvation. And yet regarding God’s spiritual blessings as only the avoidance of punishment is to miss how grand and amazing the spiritual blessing really are. Notice all the things that God offers us in the rest of the chapter. Notice our place of prominence in the kingdom. Note that in chapter three he prays that God can do more through us than we can possibly thing or imagine. Often times we forget these. There is a grave danger in this, for in forgetting, we may trade our 100 dollar bill for two pennies and think that we were the ones who came out ahead.

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,