Psalms 13-15

Acts 19:21-41

“And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”      —Exodus 6:8

Once the Israelites were freed from Egyptian captivity, there was no more cracking of whips, no more gruelling commands, harsh conditions or cruel workloads. But as wonderful as that was, it was not God’s end purpose in freeing them.

        God’s ultimate purpose in freeing His people was the same as centuries before when He made a covenant with Abram. Deuteronomy 6:23 says, “But He brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land in this way He promised on oath to our ancestors.” In the land of Canaan, with its lush green valleys and fertile soil, the Hebrew people would become an independent nation under the sovereignty of God. As promised, Israel would be a blessing to the world, because through them, God would bring His Son, the only means possible by which we are forgiven and reconciled to God, but God’s blessing does not stop there.

        Entering Canaan is symbolic of entering the fullness of God. Paul tells us, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Colossians 2:9). In other words, everything that God is lives in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ lives in us. In Ephesians 1:3, Paul says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Paul beautifully describes every spiritual blessing in Christ in this way: “glorious grace,” “incomparably great power,” “fullness of Him who fills everything in every way,” “unsearchable riches of Christ,” and “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” This is not Paul writing from textbook knowledge of Christ, but from personal experience of Christ.

        Many Christians today are still adrift in this world. They have come out of their sin, but have not yet come into the fullness of Christ. They are still pacing the floor, trying to handle all of life’s pressures and demands by human strength. What Paul is describing is the illimitable power of Christ, something we will never reach the borders of. Christ is Himself what keeps the entire universe in being, which, at the beginning of time, He simply spoke into existence. We can have all the money in the world, the greatest minds, the most sophisticated technology and the support of family and friends, but all this combined cannot guarantee to be to us all that we need in the time we need it. “Every spiritual blessing in Christ”—nothing is left out of that, and it becomes ours when we surrender every part of our lives—the good, the bad and the in between—to Jesus Christ as Lord.

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, I surrender all that I am to You, not only to experience every spiritual blessing in You, but so that I may come to know You better. Thank You, Lord.