Have you ever felt like you’re just going through the motions daily, but your life just feels like it lacks a bigger purpose?
Maybe it’s because you haven’t yet decided to take an active role in God’s masterplan for your life.
In his message today at Trinity Baptist Church, Pastor Andy Coats dove into Ephesians 1, with a sermon titled “Made to Know God.”
Relationships 101
When you first start falling in love with someone, you study everything about them. You learn their likes, how they think, what motivates them, what their favorite color is, their communication patterns, their schedule … you name it. You take the time to invest in getting to know them. But overtime, if you stop making an effort to get to know them, your relationship grows shallow.
The same is true about your relationship with God. Many of us do all of the right Christian things. We go to church. We help other people. But we stop short of really getting to know God.
3 Ways to Know God
1. Understand the Set-Up
Knowing God requires faith in Jesus and a love for other Christians. Faith in Jesus is a saving kind of faith that leads us to love others, even through their faults and failings. Loving people through the difficult times is sometimes the hardest part of love. That’s why it’s important to extend the same unconditional love for other Christians that God extends to us. Pray FOR them when you know they are struggling, even if the struggles they’re going through are hurting you.
**** Ephesians 1:15-16 ****
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
****
2. Have a Solid Foundation
Knowing God requires wisdom and knowledge through revelation from God. Having both of these teaches us how to live our lives for Christ and how to cope with the difficult times in life.
We all have unhealed wounds. We all have hurt and pain that is hard to let go of, but a solid knowledge about who God is and the wisdom he provides will allow you to find healing. When we follow in His steps and listen to His voice, we don’t allow the wounds that have been created to become infected by the enemy. Instead, we find renewal through God’s lessons of love, grace, and forgiveness.
**** Ephesians 1:17 ****
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
****
3. Involve the Spirit
Knowing God is more than just prayer and reading the Bible. It’s also allowing the Spirit of God to move in your life.
**** Ephesians 1:18-19 ****
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength.
****
When you allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten your entire life, you allow Him to guide your emotions, your thoughts, and your will. The “eyes of your heart” can be interpreted as who you are on the inside. It’s one thing to understand how to read the Bible and the theological principles behind it. It’s an entirely different thing to experience it on an emotional level and to let it truly guide your decisions and will.
In doing so, you can rest assured that the hope God provided in eternal salvation is yours. You understand that you inherit all of the spiritual blessings Christians are called to inherit. You understand that God’s power alone is what will allow you to overcome all of the difficulties and challenges life will throw at you as you grow to become more Christlike.
Understand the Gifts of the Spirit
In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul reveals the Spiritual Blessings we inherit as Christians when we choose to really know God.
1. God chose to make us holy and blameless.
(Ephesians 1:4)
2. God adopted us as his children.
(Ephesians 1:5)
3. God gives us grace and favor through Christ.
(Ephesians 1:6)
4. God redeemed us through the blood shed by Christ.
(Ephesians 1:7)
5. God forgives us of our sins.
(Ephesians 1:7)
All of these blessings are ours when we truly know God.
Christian performance without Godly power is just religion, and the world doesn’t need another religion. The world needs solid relationships. As our relationship with God grows, our actions as Christians will change.
Your life was made for more than just going through the motions. You were made to play an active role in God’s masterplan for your life, not just be a mere spectator checking off the boxes as you go through the daily grind.
Click here to watch the full message.
Note: Original photo created by MDJAFF at FreePik.com.