Alive in Christ

You are God’s handiwork! You are a masterpiece of God’s goodness! Your life is an expression of God’s artistry! Since you have put your faith in Christ, your life reflects the incomparable riches of God’s grace expressed through his kindness to you in Christ Jesus! 

Your job is something that God uniquely prepared in advance for you to do! There is nobody else in the world who can do what you are doing. Your work is not just some random task to line the pockets of the shareholders of your company. Your work is not just something you do to satisfy your desires, or to define your identity. Your work is good work, for you work for God! 

When you were physically separated from God, the giver of life, you were pursuing your work independent of God. At that time you may have enjoyed your work and the opportunity to use your skills and abilities. Or you may have seen your work as a means of defining your identity or a means for power or self-advancement. Others of you may have perceived your work as a means of acquiring material possessions or for satisfying selfish or lustful desires. However you experienced your work, eventually you would realize that work could never bring life to your soul. 

But God’s great love has changed all this! When God’s incomparably great power raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, God created a way that by faith you could enter into God’s Kingdom. It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). 

God who is rich in mercy has made you alive with Christ! God’s power which raised Christ from the dead, by faith has raised you up with Christ and seated you with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. 

You have moved from death to resurrection life. You have moved from selfish autonomy to union with Christ. You have moved from deserving God’s wrath to experiencing God’s mercy, love, kindness and grace. 

Now your identity is defined as God’s child. Now you have experienced God’s incomparable great power. Now you know that every good thing including your work, your abilities, your skills and your knowledge comes from your loving Heavenly Father.! 

Being seated with Christ in the heavenly places God enables you to be filled with joy when work is going well, and when it’s not. You have access to God’s wisdom and power to address every insurmountable problem in your work (large or small) 

Having experienced the riches of God’s mercy and the greatness of God’s love your orientation has shifted from seeking love from the people around you to showing God’s love and mercy to those around you. Now your life has meaning and purpose. Now you live your life by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you (Gal 2:20). 

Don’t wander away from the amazing love and rich mercy of God to satisfy the cravings of your flesh or to chase after the things of this world. When you succumb to temptation, your life no longer reflects God’s grace or artistry. But when you succumb to temptation (which we all do for the old order still wants to define who we are) God in his incredible love and immense mercy is waiting to forgive you. God’s power is sufficient to deliver you from whatever evil you may find yourself entangled in and restore you to intimate union with Christ. 

Christ is sufficient! What does this world have to offer you that compares to what you have seated in the heavenly realms in Christ? 

By faith, you know that your work has meaning and purpose because your work is something that God has prepared just for you to do. By faith you know that the meaning and purpose for your life is not found in your work but found in Christ! 

God continues to shower grace and kindness upon you in Christ Jesus! Continue to walk in the good works which God prepared beforehand for you!

Praying for our co-workers

If you were to have asked him, he would have said to you that he never imagined living or working in his current work place. With joy radiating from his face, and a quiet serene peace he would say that these four things kept him going every day

1. Knowing God’s wisdom;
2. Trusting God’s hope; 
3. Anticipating the riches of God’s glorious inheritance; 
4. Experiencing God’s incomparably great power. 

As you visited with him, you might wonder, as none of these changed his situation, or his workplace, or who he worked with. He was working from a Roman jail cell. His co-workers were the Roman guards that he was chained to. If you asked him to comment on his work conditions he probably would have said “I have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ and that is sufficient”. 

If you asked Paul what he was praying for that day, he would have said that his prayers were for other Christian’s. Paul would have said he was praying that his Christian friends in Ephesus would know God’s wisdom, trust in God’s hope, anticipate the riches of God’s glorious inheritance and experience God’s incomparably great power (Eph 1:15-23). 

This week, think of two or three Christians that you know in your workplace and follow Paul’s example in praying for them. 

1. Pray for the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation so that your Christian colleagues may know God better 

Wisdom is found in the marketplace. We told in Proverbs 1:20 that Wisdom calls aloud and raises her voice in the public square. Wisdom speaks to us in our lives where we live, for that is where we need wisdom. With wisdom we are able to live lives that honor and please God. Wisdom enables us to be patient and honest in our dealings with people. Our ability to do our work with excellence and integrity comes from God’s wisdom. 

Pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give your Christian colleagues listening ears to hear His wisdom. 

Pray that they would have the wisdom to apply the profound truths about God in the everyday situations of their workplace. 

2. Pray that your Christian co-workers would have Hope and not be discouraged 

Hope is lived out in the marketplace. The hope that formed our hearts when we heard and responded to the gospel transcends any hope for possessions or wealth or friendship. Hope rooted in faith in Christ, is a living hope for continuous fellowship with God and with other Christians. With hope we can endure any anxiety or trial. 

Pray that the eyes of the hearts of your Christian co-workers would be enlightened so that they would grasp the immensity of the hope to which Christ has called them. 

Pray that throughout the day their hope would rest in God himself, and God’s gracious word of forgiveness. Pray that they would not be discouraged. 

3. Pray that as God’s children your Christian colleagues would know the riches of God’s glorious inheritance 

As God’s holy children, God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled. We have an inheritance that will never fade away. We have an inheritance reserved for us in heaven. 

When we fathom the riches of God’s glorious inheritance, we can rest from the frantic busyness of corporate life in the arms of our Savior. 

Pray that your Christian colleagues would grasp the magnificence and splendor of the glory of their inheritance. 

4. Pray that your Christian co-workers would know the surpassing greatness of God’s power 

The same divine power that raised Christ from the dead is active today in the Marketplace. God’s power is evidenced in the marketplace when we keep ourselves from self-sufficiency, self-confidence and pride. God’s power has given Christ a name that is above any other name in this world or the world to come. God’s power has placed Christ above all people who are in positions of power and authority. God has never been corrupted by his power. 

Pray that your co-workers would be overwhelmed by what God by his power has done, is doing and will do, rather than being overwhelmed by this world. 

Pray that God’s un-surpassing power would be the source of your Christian co-workers energy, vitality, life, and fruit. Pray that through their cracked, broken, frail bodies the brilliance of God’s glory would shine through. 

Conclusion - An enriched prayer life 

Your prayer life will be enriched as you get to know the stories of the Christian’s in your workplace. Your faith will grow as they tell you stories of how God has answered your prayers for them. 

As they tell you stories … 

• Of how God has granted them wisdom ... 
• Of how they have found hope … 
• Of how they trust in the riches of God’s glorious inheritance … 
• Of how they experiences of the surpassing greatness of God’s power … 

may your heart be filled with praise to the Lord, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to you or your Christian friends.

A Fresh Perspective

For one moment to take your eyes off your work, your commute, your workplace, the people you work with and let your mind soar beyond this world to the heavenly realms. 

Before the dawn of creation God had you in mind! Before this world existed God chose you to be his holy and blameless child living within his constant care. Before you ever existed God had settled on you as the focus of his love. Right from the very beginning it was God’s pleasure and will to set the wheels in motion so that you could be adopted as his child through Jesus Christ! You are loved with the same everlasting love that God bears towards his Son, Jesus.  

Instead of focusing on your to-do list or your aches and pains take a moment to savor the spiritual blessings in Christ which are yours today. You are redeemed! You are freely forgiven! God’s generous grace has overflowed into every nook and cranny of your life! You are whole and holy because of God’s love! Christ’s blood which was poured out on the altar of the Cross has freed you completely from all the penalties and punishments due to your mistakes and sins.  

Don’t worry about tomorrow. God’s already given you the deposit for your home for tomorrow. The power of the Holy Spirit in your life is the first installment of what’s coming. You will get everything God has planned and promised for you. God has thought of everything including bringing all that exists in Heaven and on earth together perfectly, in Christ, at just the right time.  

What a blessing God is in our lives!  

Praise be to God for giving us through Christ every possible spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven! (Eph. 1:3 Phillips).  

Delight yourself today in God’s grace and peace!

Read Ephesians 1:1-14 on BIbleGateway

Hope

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:23)

Is there a solid anchor, something immovable and unchanging, something that is purely good that you can put your hope in today?  

There is a certain hope! A hope that is beyond your wildest dreams! A hope that abides in a place external to this world. A place where rust and moth cannot destroy it, and where thieves cannot steal it away.  

There is a living hope that co-exists with everything you experience in your life including the joys, the beauty and all that is good. This hope shines brightly amongst all the evil, sickness, despair, shame, sin and death that surrounds you.  

True hope is firmly anchored in the reality of the Kingdom of God.  

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. (1 Pet 1:3-4a)  

This living hope rests solely on the goodness of God, the creator of the universe, the one who created you. A good, holy, righteous, loving, unchanging God. God is a God of hope. God will not deceive you or trick you. You can depend on this living hope with absolute confidence for God is faithful and keeps his promises.  

Jesus invites you based on his finished work on the cross to faithfully hold tightly to the living hope he offers. When you see the sin, depravity, and darkness around you, Jesus invites you to hold without wavering to a living hope. When you are blessed beyond measure, and are enjoying life to the fullest, even as God meant life to be experienced,  

Jesus invites you to not let go of your living hope. And if you do let go of hope for a moment, if there are seasons when God seems far away and silent know that hope continues unchanging.  

Hope grows as you engage with culture and see the wonderful power of Christ operative today. Hope grows as you practice living out righteousness. Hope grows as you personally experience the reality that God’s promises are absolutely trustworthy in every moment, and in every season of life.  

Hope whispers quietly that God has your circumstances under control. With hope faithfully move forward in confidence and joy. You don’t have to fret or worry! Set your attention and affections on the things above, upon which your hope rests.  

What difference does it make in your day that that God has blessed you with a certain living hope that transcends all that you hope for in this world?  

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. (Eph 1:18-19a)