My small group is doing a 30 day Scripture Challenge as a part of our series as church. Basically we are just committing to dive into the word everyday. It doesn't matter what you read or how much read, just that you read every day. Then we have an e-mail thread and we e-mail each other every day with what we are reading and what we are learning from it. It's been so awesome to not only have that accountability but also to see what everyone is learning and to learn from that as well. To grow together through the scriptures.
Anyway I read Ephesians 1 yesterday and thought I would share what I shared with my small group.
I feel like I am in a funk and a little life crisis. Nothing that everyone doesn't go through, but tough still the same. I feel a little lost in my own life. Like I don't have direction any more. I came to Nashville with such direction. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and the industry I was going to be in. Music. There was no question in my mind that it was going to work out. Well it turns out it's been a little harder than I thought and things just haven't worked out. What I used to be so set on I now have given up on for the time being. The passion that so consumed my life and heart now seems to be burning out. And friends, that's scary. It's scary when what you've planned on doing doesn't happen. You have questions like "Well what do I do now? What
can I do now? I don't know how to do anything else. I'm not good at anything else." and even "Who am I? Now that I don't have this thing that I thought would define me, what do I have?" that last question is silly, but it still gets asked. So when I read Ephesians 1 it gave me a huge reminder.
I wish I could just copy and paste the whole thing onto here. But that would be really long, and silly. So I'll just tell you a little about it...
Paul is telling the people about the spiritual blessings they receive in Christ. It starts off by saying "Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Every spiritual blessing. That. Is. Cool.
Then he goes on to talk about how God chose us before the beginning of time, how in love he predestined us to be his, to be adopted. How he gave us Christ for forgiveness and redemption, for his pleasure and will. He ends the section by saying: "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory." I don't know about you guys, but that gives me chills every time.
I needed desperately to be reminded who I am. Whose I am. It's so basic but it's so easy for me to lose sight of. What a miracle it is that God choose me, he predestined my heart to be his. I have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ, in love. I am filled with the Holy Spirit and the power that comes with that. I am God's daughter. There is great purpose in that. No matter what my days are filled with, job wise, relationship wise, I have quite a calling and quite an identity and I need to rest in that.
