WEEK 1 - THE HOLINESS OF GOD
Our focus during this first week is on the Person of God and His attributes. Our Triune God is perfect in holiness and in all of His other attributes. As we see Him for who He is, see Him in the fullness of His glory, may we be drawn to a posture of worship before Him. He is perfectly worthy!
DAY FOUR THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD - MATT COHEN
Few topics have produced more theological debate than the doctrine of God’s sovereignty. But long before it was a subject of debate, it fueled the fire of worship among Christians. In the original Greek, Ephesians 1:3–14 is a long sentence with one big idea: Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
But why? Why should we glorify God with our lips and our lives? Let’s look for a moment at all the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has done, by His sovereign grace, for all who are in Christ. God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (verse 3b). God “chose us in him before the creation of the world” (verse 4). In love, God “predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (verse 5). Because of the riches of God’s grace, “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (verse 7). God “made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ . . . to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head” (verses 9–10). God “predestined [us] according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (verse 11). God sealed us with “the promised Holy Spirit . . . guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” (verses 13–14). And God did it all to the praise of His glory.
God’s sovereignty is the fuel that lights the fire of His people’s praises. God has saved us by sovereign grace. Let us praise Him!
PRAYER POINTS:
1. Begin your prayer time by praising God for the spiritual blessings God has lavished upon you in Christ (Ephesians 1:3–14). Consider rewriting this passage as a prayer of adoration and thanksgiving.
2. Confess any ways that you’ve lived in “functional unbelief” about God’s sovereignty and goodness. For example, “Father, I confess I’ve been giving in to fear because I haven’t trusted You to work all things according to the counsel of Your will.”
3. Ask the Father to give you strength to comprehend “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Eph. 3:18). Pray this for yourself, your family, church, community, and our world.