Who Does God Say We Are?

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called--his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. Ephesians 1:8

Paul wrote these words to the church at Ephesus. He was thankful when he heard of the people’s strong faith in Jesus Christ and their love for people. He prayed that God would flood their hearts with light so that they would understand and be confident in the hope of Jesus Christ. He reassured them that they are indeed God’s holy people and they were called by God. If you are like me, you don’t feel holy. Thankfully, it’s not about our feelings. We are made holy through Jesus Christ, certainly not of our own accord.  If we have been saved by believing Jesus is God's son, believing that He died and rose again, and making him Lord of our lives, this is for us.
So what does this verse mean for us? It means that we are children of a Holy God. We can come before His throne unashamed. Yes, we still sin and need to repent, but we don’t have to live in bondage to sin. We don’t have to live defeated lives. We are a part of God’s family and He loves us. We are not to be prideful but thankful. We should live our lives like we appreciate what Jesus has done for us, with lives and attitudes that are pleasing to Him. How do we know if our lives are pleasing to him? Through prayer and the Bible. We should ask God to reveal to us anything that isn’t pleasing to him. David prayed in Psalm 139:23, 24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” God will not only point out what needs to be changed, He will lead us in changing it.
We can be confident that Jesus Christ is ours. We need to let the word of God bring light into our lives so we can understand this. We belong to Him and all that he is belongs to us. Every need we have can be met through Him. There is nothing too big or too small for our Lord. We can be confident that he cares for us and wants to intervene in our lives as we give him control. We have to be willing to work with him and obey him.
He is our confident hope: our hope for salvation, eternity, and the here and now. Let’s live our lives like we believe this. Let’s relinquish our lives to him. Let’s allow Jesus to shed his light into every aspect of our lives. This includes our hearts, our minds, our attitudes, our marriages, parenting our children, our jobs, our service to him and the list goes on. Nothing is hopeless with Jesus because he IS our hope.