We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. These blessings, though, are not just for us in isolation. When pooled together we become a family. 

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:14-16 NIV)

This family is likened to a body where every part has a job to do and when working together, the body, or family, will work properly. 

No earthly family is perfect, we all have our squabbles and disagreements. Sometimes they can be bitter and divisive but mostly they are short-lived and harmony and peace is restored. When we live in love there is something in us that does not want to dwell on the disagreement. Instead we seek restoration and relationship. 

It's the same with our spiritual family, the church. Yes, there are times when we are 'blown here and there' but that does not have to be the end of the story. We are held together by love and as we discover the wide range of gifts and personalities that are amongst us, we truly become the family of God. A family that loves and cares for one another. 

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 4:32-5:2 NIV)

Here's another promise! We can actually understand the vastness of God's love. 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV)

When I think of the love of God I think of something that is eternal, something that never runs out or gives up on me. I think of something that is tangible and with me every moment of every day. It's immeasurable. It has to be immeasurable or God becomes finite.

It's no wonder Paul prays that we would be strengthened through the Holy Spirit. We simply can't contain the fulness of God's love in our limited state.

May this be the cry of our heart. We want to know the presence of Christ living in us, we want to experience the increasing fulness of his love, we want to be filled with all the fulness of God (that's a lot of fulness). We don't understand it with our mind (that's too limiting) - we understand it with our heart. May this become your longing today!

In these few verses Paul's joy is overflowing. He knows who he is and he longs that we would have the same discovery.

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:15-19 NIV)

​God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ simply because we belong to him, we are his sons and daughters. This is such an amazing truth but one we often miss or see through filtered glasses.

In this powerful prayer, Paul prays that the glorious Father will give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to help us know him better. I believe this is a longing in our hearts. We really do want to know God and walk in his ways although sometimes we're not sure how that can happen. Here is the mystery: God, the Father, gives us the very thing we need to enable us to know him. We don't get to know God through our own effort, instead we receive a gift from him which enables us to know him.

Not only does this gift enable us to know him, it also causes the eyes of our heart (often dimmed or closed) to be opened and then we see who we are. We find our place of belonging in the Father's family and can step into the inheritance which is freely given to sons and daughters. My prayer today is that you know more fully who God is and that you see more clearly who you are.

Paul's letter to the Ephesians is a tremendously joyful celebration.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. (Eph 1:3-7 NIV)

​I encourage you to read chapter one and count the individual blessings that are now ours through Christ. It's not just the ones that have been listed, Paul says; every spiritual blessing is ours and has been given freely to us. There may be times when we don't feel particularly blessed, we may be going through struggles or hardships and feel that life has become a bit of a fight. That's ok! Our inheritance is not dependent on our earthly circumstances but has been secured for us and held safe in the heavenly places. If you like, they're in our heavenly bank account.

We are blessed in such an extravagant way simply because we belong to God, not as a chattel or piece of property but as sons and daughters. Before the creation of the world the Father wanted a family and we become part of that family by being born again.

In our western understanding the word 'adoption' creates an image of someone who didn't belong who then became a part of the family. That's not the way it is for us; we've always belonged but got lost along the way and it is only through Jesus that we can be brought back into relationship with the Father. Perhaps, instead of adoption, being redeemed back into our sonship is a better way of looking at it.

The greatest blessing of all is the assurance that our sins have been forgiven and we have been made right with God. How wonderful that he chooses to lavish his love on us.

The Father wants each one of us to wear a completely new garment, the garment of love. Too many people take a small bit of the new and try to attach it to what already exists. It doesn’t work.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 2:6-7, 3:1-3 NIV)

Paul tells us in Colossians 2:9 that all the fullness of the Godhead lives in Christ. That means in Jesus we see the fullness of the Father and the complete life of the Spirit all revealed through the Son of God who became a man, someone we could know, see and touch. That alone is an incredible thing - the Trinity being revealed to mankind through a man. In some ways that would be enough. However, there is more.

Through our new birth we are taken into Christ and so our lives become planted in him. He becomes the source of our life, everything we need can be found in him. His love and his life become our life-giving source, we draw everything we need from him.

The fullness of the Trinity lives in Christ, we are in Christ and therefore the overwhelming conclusion is that the fullness of the Trinity is ours. That’s what Jesus encourages us to be fully clothed with a new garment, the garment of love, rather than settling for a small patch to mend our existing way of life.

“Remain in my love so that your joy may be complete” (John 15:9-11)

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. (Job 36:16 NIV)

These verses are probably not well known yet they describe a recurring biblical theme and that is freedom. Here we are in a place of distress (which can also mean loss, trauma, anguish, torment, suffering or exhaustion) and yet there is a promise of something better. There is hope. We don't have to remain in this very negative place but we are drawn into a wide open space where there is freedom and the things that have restricted us fall away. 

What draws us away from this distressful place? Love. We are wooed; that's an intimate expression of love, gentleness and kindness; it’s a very romantic word. As Hosea writes, we are drawn with cords of loving kindness. 

We are drawn out of our distress, a place where we feel restricted and into a wide open space where we are free from restriction. Not only that, set before us is a table of choice food. This place of refuge is a place of comfort, provision and safety. It sounds a bit like Psalm 23:5 where we see a table of goodness laid out for us in the presence of our enemies. If we are expected to sit at a table and eat whilst our enemies surround us there must be someone else looking out for us. Our Father and his angels are there to protect and comfort us whilst the storm rages around us. 

If you feel in distress (or any of the other words that I mentioned above) then allow your heart to come to a place of rest. Can you trust him to bring you through the storm and into a wide open space of freedom? He will comfort and provide, even in the middle of a storm. And once you’ve been drawn away from the jaws of distress don’t let anything try and drag you back! Stay in and enjoy the wide open space. 

There is something in each of us that longs to be free. We feel trapped in our job, trapped in our financial situation, constrained by our circumstances yet we know that, deep down, there is something more. We want to be free. 

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-36)

So what is freedom? For many it’s the desire to be able to do what they want without reference to another or being bound by another’s rules. For some it’s the desire to travel, to have possessions or unlimited wealth. This constant desire for more can end up stealing the very thing we thought we were chasing after. 

Just imagine what the world would be like if everyone did what they pleased all the time. It would be chaos. That supposed freedom would lead to the desires of one person clashing with another and instead of freedom we would have dissent and broken relationships. Rather than creating freedom we would have created a prison of selfish ambition. 

Jesus was the most free person whoever lived. He could walk on water, walk through walls, find his tax money in a fish’s mouth. As we look at his freedom we see a life of total submission to the will and desire of his Father. He only did what he saw his Father doing, he only said what he heard his Father saying. On a human level, without understanding, that could be perceived as control but in reality it is the example of absolute freedom. 

Freedom is not pursuing our own agenda. It is living in perfect submission to the Father. As we do, his Spirit finds his home in our heart and causes us to walk in God’s ways. He transforms our heart so we can begin to walk as Jesus walked, in sonship and in freedom. It’s as we find our true identity as sons and daughters that we begin to see what true freedom really is. 

There is only one relationship that the Father has ever wanted with us and that is for him to be a Father to us and for us to know that we are his sons and daughters. In fact, it’s more than that. It’s one thing to know we’re sons and daughters whereas it’s a completely different thing to live as sons and daughters. 

God’s desire is actually very simple and we read it in the following verse:

I myself said, “How gladly would I treat you as sons and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation. I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.” (Jeremiah 3:19 NIV)

That’s it! God’s desire is that we would call him ‘Father’ - why? Because that’s who he is. The promises and blessings of taking such a step are immense. 

These blessings are three-fold. Firstly, when we know God is being a Father to us we discover our true identity; we are treated as sons and daughters. Treated the same way as the Father treats his son, Jesus. Secondly, we find our place of true belonging, our ‘pleasant land’. There is a place for us to call home when we know God has made his home in our heart (John 14:23). And thirdly, we live in and receive our inheritance. A master does not give his inheritance to his servant but a father gives it to his children. 

This is what the Father longs to do for each of us. Yet as I read this verse in Jeremiah, I feel the pain in the Father’s heart as it is like he is unable to do what is the desire in his heart. His desire seems thwarted and is only fulfilled once we turn and see him for who he truly is. Father. That turning opens the door for us to step into this three-fold blessing. 

The Father’s desire is satisfied by a simple promise, the assurance of his word back up by all of the authority of Heaven. 

I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor 6:18)

An orphan feels unloved. No matter how much their adoptive parents or family show love they are unable to receive it. 

An orphan has to make a name for themselves and push themselves forward in order to be noticed. They are often independent and see God as their master or judge. An orphan will always seek to impress others and God. 

They regard love as being conditional, the result of pleasing others and having their own needs met. 

For them, contentment is far away. Do not see themselves as sons or daughters but rather slaves or servants. They don’t feel they belong. 

John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 

I have loved you just as the Father has loved Me; remain in My love (and do not doubt My love for you). V9 AMP

Whereas an orphan lives for themselves, a son lives for another. 

We can’t abide in love unless we truly know who we are, the beloved sons and daughters of the Father. The first step into sonship is knowing that we are loved, not with a human love but a love that originates in the heart of the Father. He IS love and any love which we may express is an imitation of the love we have first received from him. 

The revelation that changes everything is:

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (John 17:26 NIV)​

We are loved by the Father, just as much as he loves Jesus (v23).

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (John 15:9 ESV)

We must never lose sight of our true home which is finding the place of absolute contentment in the centre of the Father's love.

As we do we discover that it’s a love that knows no limits to how far the Father will go to rescue us from the orphan hearted ways of the world. 

There are no situations that are beyond the reach of his love. 

The generosity and kindness of his love for us is endless. 
He is constantly rescuing us from ourselves and whenever we settle or become side-tracked he always offers more. 

This is the fulness of the gospel to live loved. 

We must never think we have found those limits or boundaries of love because there are none. 

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:17-19 NIV)

The Father’s love goes beyond our knowledge: it's bigger, deeper and more intensive than we can ever think. And even if we ever think we have it measured we discover it still goes beyond our wildest dreams or imagination (Eph 3:20)

His love is greater than all that we’ve experienced so far. It’s greater than we can ever imagine or dream about.

This is the love we are invited to abide or remain in. This is the love we can keep coming back to.