Daily Devotional for Sunday, April 2

Paul’s Desire for the Ephesian Church

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,” Ephesians 1:17.

Self-help books are extremely popular. It seems there is a book out there to teach us how to fix any issue we might have. Sometimes people write books to tell us how to fix things we did not even know were problems until the book told us so! If it is not a book, it is a TV show or website. Our desire to improve ourselves is very large. In many cases, you can read a book and dramatically improve yourself in many ways. You can learn to eat better, be healthier and many other things. That is great!
No matter how great the changes you make in your life, they will be lacking. They will be lacking because they are temporal and not spiritual. The only thing that will change you permanently is a change of heart, and only Jesus can give you a new heart.
Once Jesus gives us a new heart, He expects us to grow in our knowledge and wisdom of Him. Do you know something? You cannot do that on your own either. Like our efforts to change physically, our human efforts to know Him will also fail. How can you then? Our passage tells how. We are given the “spirit of wisdom.” In other words, we receive enlightenment and illumination from the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit lives in us, we just have to let Him work. God does not just open your head and pour wisdom into it. You must work at it. You have to spend time in God’s Word and pray, study and meditate over it. Then you will grow in the wisdom and knowledge of Him.

THOUGHT:We can never fix ourselves enough to attain God’s perfection. Any change you might make is cosmetic only. Jesus changes us permanently.

Wally Fry