Ephesians 3:14-19 English Standard Version

Prayer for Spiritual Strength

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now that the church age has begun, the real work begins. Each and every born again Christian has the same responsibility to God the Father regardless of age, experience, gender or nationality. That responsibility is to know Christ.

Up until the time of our becoming born again and the quickening of our spirit, everything we knew about Christ was book knowledge, theoretical, a view from the outside trying desperately to glimpse into His life lived out as a man in His earthly ministry.

Now we get to know Christ intimately in greater detail than any book can possibly tell us. He is present in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is our Lord ruling and reigning in our hearts that belongs to Him.

He is no longer theoretical, He is present and real. 

How can we expect to show Christ if we do not know Christ?

How can we expect to love like Christ if we do not know the love of Christ?

How can we expect to know the mind of Christ if we are full of self-talk?

How can we become filled with the fullness of God when we are so full of ourselves?

The work of the cross has brought us to Christ.

Now the real work begins.

Hebrews 9:14 English Standard Version (ESV) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Now it is Easter, the day we celebrate our risen Lord. This is not about that.

Today is a new beginning. Yesterday is gone and there is nothing we can do to change what happened. We can only begin again today. It is a new day and the Lord has something new to do and we get to be part of that.

Do we feel guilty for what happened yesterday or perhaps what didn’t happen yesterday? Sure, but those are emotional ties to dead works. Things didn’t turn out as we had hoped. We were not born again to live in the disappointments of yesterday. Our consciences have been cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. We need to honor that sacrifice in order to get up, pick up our beds and leave yesterday behind.

If we find that difficult, then perhaps we have something to repent of. Repentance is a leaving behind, and if we have something we are carrying forward that we should not, then the Holy Spirit is encouraging us to lay it down at the foot of the cross where all dead things need to be laid to rest.

This church age began that first day after the tomb was found empty. Jesus appeared to His disciples after sundown on the 3rd day. That technically makes Monday the first day of the church age, when we mortals wake up seeing Jesus in all His glory.

Matthew 12:36 English Standard Version (ESV) I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,

Today is not judgment day. Today is resurrection day. Today is a day of new beginnings. Do not waste time trying to answer for yesterday’s mistakes. Learn to avoid repeating mistakes. That is how we grow, mature, and keep moving forward. Do not allow the past to keep us from beginning new each day.

2 Corinthians 2:14 English Standard Version (ESV) But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.