The Absolute Necessity for Christians to Keep Growing in Spiritual Maturity!

25 Oct 2025 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ephesians 3:16b.        to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

It’s our lazy-day Saturday friends! Where we lie around and do as little as we want, even to the point of doing nothing! (smile) And isn’t it a good feeling? It surely is! I even enjoyed some lazy-day sleep in, but that’s mainly because I went to bed at a rather late hour, so that might not count. (smile) Anyway, let’s get the ball rolling right away, for time is of the essence. And we’ll begin by offering up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer. 

So, as one strong and sincere voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And as always, if we’re sincere, we’ll soon feel an extra special calm and peace filling our souls, because our wonderful God just LOVES to offer them to those who come desiring greater intimacy with Him. It’s one request He’ll NEVER turn away, if our hearts are truly sincere. And remember, He checks out our hearts before He answers our prayers to see if we have right and sincere motives, so it doesn’t make sense going to Him unless we fulfill those two scenarios.  

That brings us to this interesting prayer Bruh Paul prayed for the Ephesians in his letter to them. He writes: ‘For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in LOVE, May be able to comprehend (understand) with all saints what is the breadth (width), and length, and depth, and height; And to know the LOVE of Christ , which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.’ (Eph. 3:14-20) 

Wow! What an interesting prayer. Please note that Bruh Paul did not pray for earthly stuff but more for their spiritual awareness to be awakened and enlightened. And what does it all mean? The scholars offer these explanations. As per vs. 14, they explain: ‘For this cause. This expression resumes the apostle’s prayer begun in verse 1 but delayed by the discussion of verses 2-13.’ And that first verse simply says: ‘For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,’ It is just an introduction to what he says in verse 14 onward, but got diverted before he could get into the prayer. 

And as per verse 15: ‘Is named means “is derived.” The whole Christian family, including those saints now departed and in heaven, and those saints still living on earth – all of them derive their spiritual life from God.’ Then in verses 16-19, ‘Paul makes three prayer requests for the addressees: (1) That they would be strengthened with might by his Spirit (vs. 16), that is, they be divinely enabled to successfully live the Christian life. 

(2) That the readers be able to comprehend … the LOVE of Christ, that is, to better understand the enormous LOVE Christ has for them. And (3) that they might be filled with all the fullness of God, that is, that the life, character, and virtues of God Himself may be fully developed in them.’  Yuh see friends, it’s all about understanding the enormity of God’s LOVE for us and wanting us to be truly a reflection of the image of Christ. 

Then the scholars further break down verse 17, by saying: ‘This verse expresses the result of vs. 16: Christ will dwell in the lives of those who are recipients of the Holy Spirit. Jesus already lives in them and in all Christians. The Greek word translated “dwell” means to settle down and be at home, to be at ease. When they are divinely strengthened (vs. 16), they will then live the kind of lives God desires. When they thus please God, Christ will then be “at home” or “at ease” in their lives. As a permanent guest, He will enjoy living with them.’ 

Now the big question here is whether Christ is at home, or at ease in us, does He enjoy residing with us? And until we can answer that question with a strong affirmative, we have work to do. Well … we will always have work to do, but the point is, are we growing in spiritual maturity? And remember, even if we aren’t working on us, the Lord is. Bruh Paul states it quite plainly to the Philippians. ‘Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform (continue) it until the day of Jesus.’ (Phil. 1:6) That means we will be in God, the Potter’s hands from the moment we receive Christ as Lord and Saviour until He takes us home, or Christ returns, whichever happens first. 

And Bruh Paul finishes his prayer for the Ephesians in style. ‘Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.’ (Eph. 3:20-21) 

And the scholars tell us there that ‘Paul, has not asked for too much. For he prays unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that he can ask or think.’ And we all know that’s the gospel truth! Our great God can do much more than we can ever ask or think. He created us, therefore He must be a much higher power then us, His  lowly creations. And He informs us of that most salient fact, very clearly through the prophet Isaiah. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’ (Is. 55:8-9) 

Yes friends, the Lord states it as it is, and I pray that on this lazy-day Saturday we will take to heart all that we’ve said, and also put it into practice, so that we can keep growing in spiritual maturity as our wonderful God desires of us. Much LOVE!

…until Christ feels at home in us…we need to keep growing…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   13 June 2022   2 Corinthians 13:14.

13 Jun 2022 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Corinthians 13:14.      The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the LOVE of God and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.​

Oh friends, Monday, as it has a nasty habit of doing, (smile) has shown its intimidating face once again. But yuh know what? As always, we will not be intimidated by it because we have been refilled, been regenerated by the Holy Spirit yesterday as we celebrated Trinity Sunday in honour of our Three in One Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is no God like our God Jehovah… three separate persons, three different identities, but ONE GOD! 

And some people, even believers, find that difficult to fathom. But it’s really quite simple: Although they are all equally God in their own right, we can possibly say that the Father runs the show, makes the big decisions, while the Son acts as His right-hand man, and the Holy Spirit does the hard work, or puts the decisions in to action. I guess we could give the example that the Father LOVED us, His sinful and rebellious creation so much that He didn’t want to lose even a single one to the satanic forces, so He concocted a marvellous, but heartbreaking plan to give us an opportunity to change from our evil ways and be reconciled to Him. 

That’s because, with the disobedience of our forefathers, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, our sinful nature had become anathema, meaning repugnant and odious to Him, and consequently we had been consigned to eternal damnation. Now, that outstanding plan we just spoke of, involved sending His Son, Jesus Christ to earth in human form, to die a substitutionary sacrificial death in our place, giving us the option of receiving forgiveness for our sins, salvation and eternal life with the Father, when we believe in Christ as our Lord and Saviour. 

But then, after Jesus did His mighty work here on earth, He had to return to heaven. However, our God is so caring and compassionate that the Holy Spirit was dispatched to earth on that fateful Pentecost Sunday, which we celebrated last weekend, to indwell all believers, as our Helper, Comforter, Guide and heaven-sent Companion. And that’s the beauty of our Triune God: they are three distinct, equal though separate entities, but operate as One well-oiled and magnificently functioning machine! Please give our wonderful God some much deserved thanks and praise! 

And although the Bible does not mention the word ‘Trinity,’ the idea is scattered throughout it. Let’s look at a few of them to give us some idea of how they work together, are amazingly intertwined three in one. And the first scripture comes from Matthew 3:13-17, which features the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. The Good Book describes it thus: ‘And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ (Matt. 3:16-17) 

Right there you have the Son baptized, the Holy Spirit coming down to sit on Him like a dove, and the Father’s voice saying that He’s proud of the Son. And later on in Matthew, Jesus talks to the disciples about Christian Baptism thus: ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ (Matt. 28:19) There we have baptism in one name, but of three persons. 

Then, if we turn to 1 Peter 1:2, we see him writing to the elect, those chosen by God for salvation. ‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.’ (1 Pet. 1:2) 

The scholars describe ‘Elect’ as ‘God’s determination in eternity past to bring certain people into a special relationship with Himself. The Spirit sets apart (sanctifies) for salvation from destruction those whom God has foreknown. Sprinkling is an allusion to Exodus 24:1-11 in which the blood was sprinkled on the altar as a symbol of the people’s obedience and also on the people as a symbol of Jehovah’s acceptance.’ So there, in salvation, we have people chosen by the Father, set apart or sanctified by the Holy Spirit and sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. Another example of how our Triune God works so wonderfully well together as One. 

Meanwhile in 2 Corinthians Bruh Paul offers this benediction to his readers. ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the LOVE of God and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.’  (2 Cor. 13:14) And the scholars explain it thus. ‘13:14. In his concluding benediction, Paul provides one of the clearest expressions in the New Testament on the doctrine of the Trinity. The deity of the Son, of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit are affirmed by virtue of their relation to one another. The distinctive personalities of each are implied by the independent activity denoted in the threefold operation of grace (from Jesus), LOVE (of the Father) and communion or fellowship (of the Holy Spirit.).’ 

Now doesn’t that make it all a little clearer, as well as tantalizing and interesting! (smile) And we’ll just summarize this last passage of scripture where Bruh Paul prays for inner growth for the Ephesians in Chapter 2:14-21. He prayed that they might be ‘strengthened with might by his (Christ’s) Spirit in the inner man… to know the LOVE of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.’ (Eph. 2:16, 19) So there we have more scripture that’s representative of the Triune God we serve, and there’s still more in the Good Book that we don’t have time nor space to consider today. 

And as one commentator says of those scriptures: ‘ It simply shows how easily the writers of Scripture passed from one Person of the Trinity to another, doing so in a way that assumes their equality of nature while preserving their distinct personhood. If the doctrine of the Trinity is not true, it would seem to be blasphemy to speak so freely of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in one and the same breath.’ 

And I do hope that with the above scriptures and explanations we’ve made the doctrine of the ‘Trinity’ somewhat easier to understand and accept. Now, let’s go to our Triune God, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, asking for His help in our earthly problems. Altogether now. ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You this Monday morning for life and strong faith in Christ, despite the mass confusion in our world. We desperately need Your divine help, for You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems. 

Heavenly Father, we admit that we have all sinned and seriously disobeyed Your Word, but we know that You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, who has faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. That’s why we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading with You to give us wise guidance and direction to alleviate our problems.  

And Father, we pray that you will ease the pain of the many who are suffering from negative situations. Please show them Your awesome grace and mercy, and keep Your promise that You’ll hear our prayer, forgive us, and heal our land if we turn from our evil ways. Show this evil world that You are indeed Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals! We pray this in the holy and blessed name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen! And again, we say: Amen!’ 

It’s up to us now my people, to keep our promises if we want God to keep His. Much LOVE!

…the Holy Trinity works in marvellous tandem…just like the universe they created…  

P.S. Please excuse the lateness of the Bit, but the ole fella was somewhat under the weather this morning and didn’t get started until later than usual. And I know it’s long, but good. (smile) And as they say, better late than never. Much LOVE! 

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8​