“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers …” Ephesians 1:15-16
Do you thank God for bringing others to faith in Jesus? St. Paul continually thanked God for graciously bringing the Ephesian believers to faith in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit through the gospel. It is a mighty miracle of God when He sends forth His Word and the Holy Spirit and then raises the spiritually dead to spiritual life by bringing them to see and repent of their sinful ways and look to Christ and His cross for mercy and forgiveness!
Thank You, Lord, for raising me from death to life through hearing Your Word, and thank You for working mightily through the preaching of the gospel to grant faith and life to all my fellow believers. Amen.
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14
Hearing the gospel, the word of truth, we too came to trust in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice on the cross. The Holy Spirit graciously brought us to faith in Christ through hearing God’s Word. He came to regenerate and dwell in us at our baptism, and He keeps us in saving faith through the continued use of God’s Word until that day when we are taken to be forever with the Lord.
Thank You, dear Savior, for sending men to preach the gospel of our salvation, for granting us the Holy Spirit to create faith in our hearts through the hearing of Your word, and for preserving us in saving faith through Your word unto life everlasting. Amen.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29
Rather than trying to know those things God has not revealed to us and remain hidden in His divine wisdom, we should focus our attention on those things He has revealed to us, repent of our sinful ways, and look in faith to Christ Jesus and the salvation He has accomplished for us.
Grant me the wisdom to read and study Your Word, O God, so that I might acknowledge my sinfulness and look in faith to Christ Jesus and His cross for pardon, forgiveness, and life in fellowship with You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
God the Son, the creator of all, took on human flesh and blood and was born into this world of the Virgin Mary to be our Savior. The Apostle John and his fellow disciples saw the glory of Christ Jesus — the same glory possessed by God the Father — in Jesus’ mighty works and in His transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus brings us God’s undeserved love and mercy, and He brings God’s truth, which reveals our sins but also forgiveness and life through faith alone in Christ Jesus.
Grant, dear Jesus, that we recognize You as the only-begotten Son of the Father come into this world a true man that You might atone for our sins and grant to all who trust in You eternal salvation. Amen.
“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:11-12
We also who trust in Christ for forgiveness and life have an inheritance in God’s heavenly kingdom and are among those predestined by God’s gracious will to trust in Christ and to be preserved in that faith through hearing God’s Word. This brings Him praise and glory for the salvation He has so mercifully bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus, our Savior.
We thank and praise You, O God, for graciously sending Your Son to redeem us, for choosing us to be Your own, bringing us to faith in Christ Jesus, and preserving us in that faith through hearing Your Word. Amen.
