Praise the Lord for Ephesians 1! This chapter of Scripture is so rich and has so much contained in it. I want to encourage us to take another day where we are not memorizing a new verse but rather taking time to really meditate on the verses we have already memorized.

An aspect of meditation I want us to focus on today is picturing the verses. Grab your Bible, get alone with the Lord and take one of the verses you have already memorized and begin to picture it. Picture each word of the verse and ask God to cause the eyes of your understanding to be enlightened by His Spirit to what He wants to communicate to you.

Meditation upon God’s Word is thinking God’s thoughts after him. But here is the problem: in Isaiah 55:8-9 we read: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I do not believe these verses in Isaiah are trying to say that we will never be able to attain to God’s ways or think His thoughts but rather it is rebuking us and telling us that our ways should be His ways and our thoughts should be the thoughts of God. So how can we begin to think the thoughts of God if His thoughts are as high as the heavens and our thoughts are as low as the earth?

Remember verse 3 of Ephesians 1 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” (Emphasis added) Remember the Greek word there for blessing literally means well speaking. So God speaks well of us in Christ. But where does He speak well of us? In the Heavenly Places IN Christ! We see in Ephesians 1:3 that God’s well speaking of us is in the Heavenlies IN Christ so if we want to hear from the Lord and think His thoughts we have to be in the Heavenlies IN Christ!

So the big question that should be ringing in our mind is how do we get into the Heavenlies? We find the answer in Ephesians 2:5-6: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” (emphasis added) Wow! Praise the Lord! According to these verses if we are IN Christ we have been raised with Him and are currently (as in right now not in the far off future) seated together with Christ! Hallelujah!

So once I begin to see the radical reality that I am raised with Christ and seated with Him in the Heavenlies what should be the result? Listen to what it says in Colosians 3:1-2 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Emphasis added) The result of realizing that we are risen with Christ is that we begin to seek those things which are above where Christ is seated (remember we are seated with him) and the things of earth no longer captivate our thoughts.

As you go to meditate on Ephesians 1 if you are a believer realize that you are doing so from a place of being seated with Christ and that God wants to share His thoughts with you. As you meditate on God’s Word you are thinking the very thoughts of God! I believe that the greatest way that God’s thoughts become our thoughts and His ways become our ways is as we saturate ourselves in the Word of God by meditating upon it.

What are some of the things that God has been showing you from Ephesians 1? How has your view on verses changed as you have meditated on them? Feel free to comment below in response. May the Lord continue to open His Word to us as we meditate on it!

~Gabe Cleator