1/01 Ephesians 1:2
May grace and peace be yours, sent to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
GRACE
I am so grateful for God’s grace. He is always looking for my best good. Life can get very chaotic and out of control and in the midst of the turmoil I can sense God’s grace coming to me. What I need every day is the presence of the Living Lord and His grace which sustains me.
1/02 Ephesians 2:1-2
Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
LIFE
As I survey the cross of Christ I realize the wonderful forgiveness of God that has ushered me into His presence. Life often times passes so quickly it begins to seem ordinary. In Jesus we are no longer on our own and doomed to death. We are alive in Christ and living in the very presence of Jesus. We know this because we have become obedient to the Lord and are seeking to become more like Jesus.
1/03 Ephesians 2:4-5
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!)
GIFT
God has given us life in Jesus Christ. We belong to the Lord Jesus. No more am I on my own, alone and at the mercy of the world, I am a child of God. The Lord has gifted me with this new life. I did not earn it. The Father was looking for me when He resurrected Jesus from the cross. Praise the Lord Jesus is alive and has saved me.
1/04 Ephesians 2:8-9
God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
SALVATION
I am in debt to the Lord. He came looking for me when I as blind and could not see. Everything I did and thought was the foolishness of the world and yet the Lord loved me and offered me life. I chose Jesus because He had chosen me.
1/05 Ephesians 3:12
Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome.
RELATIONSHIP
Life is messy. Things happen that surprise me. Sometimes my response when I am under pressure is disappointing. My performance because of health or a multitude of other reasons may even embarrass me. One thing I know, I can always go to Jesus. He will hear me out and guide me to where I should be. As I read His Word I find myself being helped into the very presence of the Father. The Lord loves me and is able to deal with my life.
1/06 Ephesians 3:14
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
PRAISE
The Lord is good and able to equip me to face the realities of my life. If today is a tough day, the Lord will equip me to be tougher. If tomorrow I fail, the Lord will carry me through my failure. What a wonderful Father I have. I can live my life knowing that whatever I must do the Father will enable me to do it. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
1/07 Ephesians 3:17
And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.
LOVE
God’s actions towards me are out of His love. The Father will do what is necessary to equip, guide and enable me to accomplish His purpose in my life. He will make my life a life of possibility and not a life of dead ends. His plan for me is a good plan and exactly fits my life. The Lord is good and He loves me.
1/08 Ephesians 3:18|
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
LOVE
I know God’s love out of the reality of my life. He has pulled me out of the fire of sin, foolishness and failure. He is equipping me to face the challenges of my life today. The Lord is never late and is always available for me. I have never gotten a busy signal when I approached Jesus.
1/09 Ephesians 3:19
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
LIFE
My life is valuable. God has a plan for me. As I work out His plan for me each day I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of His love and the consistency of His guidance. I cannot explain it I can only proclaim it. The Lord is good and He loves me.
1/10 Ephesians 3:20
Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.
LIFE
I have spent a great deal of my life in laboring to accomplish the things I wanted. Then one day I realized that what I needed to do was find out what Jesus wanted me to accomplish. When I walk with Jesus and follow His plan, the world is a different place. I discover the joy of knowing that the Lord will do what He says. My anxiety disappears. Trust equips me for the abundant life that Jesus talks about. My life is refocused. I grow in my relationship with the Father.
1/11 Ephesians 4:1
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
CALLING
I am called of God to lead a normal Christian life. That means that first and foremost each day begins with Jesus. My responsibility is to stay attuned to what Jesus wants. I find that when all of my heart, mind and body is focused on Him life is joyous.
1/12 Ephesians 4:16
Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
LIFE
My life should evidence the life of Jesus. When I am Christ controlled I am growing. When I am in control I am always in trouble. Jesus knows the future and He knows exactly what I need. I strain and anguish trying to anticipate the future. Jesus already knows the future and competently guides me to meet the future equipped and able to serve.
1/13 Ephesians 1:6
His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
LOVE
The Lord loves mankind. He cares about me and my life. He has demonstrated His love in Jesus and is even this very moment giving His love to me. God’s wondrous love is something that cannot be explained. His love is something for me to accept and I have.
1/14 Ephesians 1:7
He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven.
FORGIVENESS
Jesus forgave me. Before I was born, before I first sinned Christ had provided a solution to my sin problem. The Lord provides the forgiveness that exactly fits me.
1/15 Ephesians 1:8
He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
LIFE
The solution to real life issues is found in Jesus. He will equip me to face my life. He will guide me through the heartache and pain of growth and comfort me through my failures. Real wisdom begins with Jesus and is available for me to use to build an abundant life.
1/16 Ephesians 1:9
God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.
PLAN
God’s plan for man’s problem is Christ. He provides forgiveness and access to the Father. He lives in me. He creates life in me in every situation. Jesus will never leave me. Christ will escort me from this life into the next where I will inherit a life like His.
1/17 Ephesians 1:10-11
And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.
PLAN
Jesus is God’s everything. He is the only way to the Father. He is the solution to finding a cure for a wayward life. Jesus equips me to grow into His likeness. Everything I need for righteousness is found in Christ.
1/18 Colossians 1:3-4
We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard that you trust in Christ Jesus and that you love all of God’s people.
PRAYER
I have learned the importance of praying for brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all part of the family of God. Together we can help those we cannot see by remembering them before the Father. I pray for you each day knowing that you are facing problems and issues that I will never have to face. I pray for your family members, work and safety. I pray that Jesus will be real in your life and that you will continue in the upward call of Christ.
1/19 Ephesians 1:2
May grace and peace be yours, sent to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
PEACE
In Jesus I am complete and whole. I am no longer tossed by every wind or doctrine nor am I overrun by sin. I am equipped to deal with the issues of my life and in Christ am able to overcome. God will give me exactly what I need if I will ask and obey.
1/20 Ephesians 1:3
How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.
PRAISE
Jesus is worthy of all of our praise, honor and glory. He is the image of the Father and provides us access to the Father. In Him is everything that you and I need to lead a Godly life. Jesus is Lord. Let us honor Him with the way we think, act and worship. Jesus is God’s everything.
1/21 Philippians 1:6
And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.
SALVATION
God bought us with the life of Christ and rightfully owns us but the Lord lets us decide if we will accept His offer of salvation. He saves us forever. The activity of God in our lives will be exactly what we need to make it to the finish line of this life. God is able.
1/22 Philippians 1:9-10
I pray that your love for each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.
LOVE
People count with God. When I am filled with His presence and living for Him I will love those around me. The presence of God brings peace, joy and love for the brethren. I am responsible for learning to love those I am with.
1/23 Philippians 1:21-22a
For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better. Yet if I live, that means fruitful service for Christ.
SERVANTHOOD
I am to be about my master’s business. The Lord has a plan for my life and that plan includes work. My work in the Father’s business requires me to learn how to be a servant. A portion of my service is to care for those I am with. This includes family, neighbors; fellow workers where I am employed, and people that I meet during the course of a day. A servant serves.
1/24 Col 1:6
This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard and understood the truth about God’s great kindness to sinners.
CALL
God is seeking to save every single person on this earth. Many seek to refute this but the Lord continues with His call for salvation. When we accept God’s saving grace we become part of His seeking the lost. We do what the Father calls us to do. God loves people and our ministry in Christ is to people. We tell the story, and the Father gives the call. We don’t save people we simple tell them what the Father has done for us.
1/25 Col 2:3
In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
JESUS
Jesus is Lord. He is Lord of all things. In Him all things that were created exist. Christ is as necessary for a Godly life as oxygen is for living on earth. Without Jesus all of our spirituality is just a foolish exercise. Christ is all and in all and is available for you and me to live the normal Christian life. The normal life of a Christian is to be totally focused on Christ and what He has for us to do.
1/26 Col 2:8-10
Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ. For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe.
JESUS
You and I have everything we need in Jesus. When we ask Christ into our heart we are saved. We don’t need to go on to higher things because Christ is the highest. When we see Jesus we have seen the Father. Christ is God’s everything. Know Jesus and you will know how to live a righteous, Godly life.
1/27 Philippians 2:3
Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.
HUMILITY
I owe everything to Jesus. Christ is the foundation and substance of my life. I can do nothing outside of Jesus. Knowing this I can live with the full understanding that without the grace of the Lord Jesus I too would be lost. Where I am weak Jesus is strong.
1/28 Philippians 2:14-15
In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them.
LIVING
Love, real love, is alien to this world. Our light is light of help. We are called to help those we live among. A joyous life that is focused on serving is a life that will be totally different than anything the world does. When I care about people I will draw people to the Lord.
1/29 Philippians 3:1-2
Whatever happens, dear brothers and sisters, may the Lord give you joy. I never get tired of telling you this. I am doing this for your own good.
JOY
Joy is a result of being with the Lord. It is not a restless exuberance or wild raving. Joy is given to us by Jesus so that we can live a productive and confident Christian life. In the face of all the challenges and unknowns of life I can know this, Jesus loves me. His love gives me great joy.
1/30 Ephesians 1:4
Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
CHOSEN
My mind cannot comprehend the magnitude of God’s love for me. He has loved, he does love and he always will love me. I want to love the Lord. Therefore, I want to do what He says. Today, this moment I will focus my heart on the Lord. Today and every today I will place the Lord Jesus first in my life.
1/31 Ephesians 1:5
His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
PLAN
God has a plan that includes me. The Lord places great value on our lives. Each one of us is an important part of His plan. We can look at our lives and rejoice in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in because the Lord has a plan for our lives. When we get off course, He will bring us back on course. When we taste failure it is always with victory in the background. Jesus is Lord.
