Every Blessing Is Ours

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3

I really like this verse because it challenges my normal paradigm. I am accustomed to talking as if blessings were far away. As a young Christian I learned to pray “help me” prayers. And for some reason they always started with “just.” Just help us to love that person. Just help me to stop smoking. Just help her to pass that test. Just help him to be a great witness. Wishful thinking prayers that were not full of authority or faith, but that assumed the blessing was distant or perhaps being withheld.

But it would appear from this verse that all the blessing is already done in the heavenly places, and it has to be done there first if it is going to be done on earth.

So as we draw close to Thanksgiving, consider trying an experiment—call it Ephesians 1:3 week. What if we decided not to pray “help me” prayers at all? I know there is a place for them and that they are biblical. But what if we focused for one week not on the hope of getting a blessing, but on receiving and putting into effect the blessings the Father has already given us in the heavenly places?

We replace “help me” prayers with “I receive” prayers.

Here’s an example: Instead of “help me to control my anger today” we could pray “I receive the blessing of self-control today. It is mine in the heavenlies and I hereby put it into effect on earth, in my life, today.”

What “help me” prayer will you give up, and what is your “I receive” prayer?