Author: mary

Ephesians 4:17-18 tells us to not live as though the Gentiles do,”With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.”These verses describe anyone who does not know Christ. They describe people who are leaning on their own strength rather than his. And people who believe in anything other than Him. According to these verses, these people are full of darkness. They have wandered from the life that God gives, because their minds are closed, and their hearts are hardened against him. They cannot see the grace and love that he gives, because they are not looking for that. They are hopelessly confused. They walk around with no hope.

God’s command here says to not live like they live. Instead, follow the example Christ set. Walk like him. He is the light, follow the light, rather than the darkness, the darkness will only lead you astray. The beautiful thing about the light is that it can illuminate the darkness just as we can light up a dark world!

“And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption,” Ephesians 4:30 says. Glorify God in the way you live. Always bring honor to Him. You belong to the Lord, and He has promised you eternity with Him for the rest of your life. Examine your life; are you living in the way that God would want you to? Does the way you are living grieve the Holy Spirit? If Jesus was standing here, would your life bring honor and glory to Him? Use this phrase to help guide your marriage and better the Lord.

Also know you are His. You belong to Him. He bought you with a price. While it did not cost us anything, it cost us nothing. That identity is secured through the day of salvation. The moment you came to know the Lord, your citizenship in heaven became secure. Take some time to really identify who God is and how you can bring glory to the Lord everyday.

The only way to move forward is to not focus on the past. You must press on toward the goal. You cannot get entangled in your former life and former sins. Ephesians 4:20-22, “But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.”

Look at the verb “throw” in these verses. The new believer does not just take off their former way of life, but instead he (or she) throws off his old sinful nature and former way of life. You cannot start your new life until you throw off the old in such a way that you never want to see the old life again. God is the one who can throw off the old self. All we have to do is take the first step and ask for His forgiveness.

For the Christian, love is what ties everything together. As first Corinthians 13 states it is the foundation that we should build our lives upon. If we do not have love when dealing with others, then, we have nothing. It is not our own love that we should be imitating, but the love of God. The Bible says in 1 John 4:19 that we only know how to love because He first loved us.

Ephesians 4:2 tells us, “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” Be humble and gentle. We are only able to do that if we first have love. So to show others love, we must first humble ourselves and think of them as greater than ourselves. We must also be gentle when dealing with them. It is okay to not always be in the right. There have been times in my life when I knew without a shadow of a doubt in my mind that I was the right one, but to save a relationship, I humbled myself and apologized anyway. This is how you show love to others. Relationships are always more important than being right for your pride.

Think about relationships you have, whether they are family relationships, work relationships, or even a spouse. Do you always have to be in the right? Do you get frustrated when you know that you were the one that was right, and they were wrong? Humility says, I don’t have to be the one who’s right. Gentleness says, I can be wrong, and allow them to be right. Love says that my relationship with that person is more important than my pride. Spend some time in prayer today for your relationships, and allow God to build them on his love.

Ephesians 3:17 states, “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” This is one of my favorite verses. I love the concept of our roots. Our roots growing deep inside of His love and Word, taking root there, and continuing to grow. The more we trust in Him, the deeper the roots go.

Trust is something that does not come easy for many people. Some people have had trust issues in the past because someone let them down, so they find it hard to trust God when everyone around them is untrustworthy. Even those who do not have trust issues still tend to be leery of just throwing their trust at someone. What makes God any different? First, we can trust Him because He is the God of the Universe. Everything comes from His plans and who He is. Nothing happened that he did not have a hand in, or did not already know about. Second, we can trust Him because He intricately designed who we are. Psalm 139 says that he knit us together in our mother’s womb. He saw us before we were born and he put us together. He actually knows us better than we know ourselves. Third, He is like a parent. He knows if something is going to be good for us, or if something will ruin us. Just like a child should be able to trust that their parents know what’s best for them, we can trust God and know that He has our best interest in mind. Every decision He makes is to further the kingdom. He uses us as part of His great plan.

If that is not enough reason to trust Him, then know that He is trustworthy because He is not human like we are. We can trust who He is because He is God.