Hi Friend! Welcome to episode 32 of the Tending Your Soul podcast! I’m Mariel and I’m excited to get into our verses with you today. The verses before us contain the premise of the gospel, and fertilizing the soil of hearts with the gospel is like watering the garden with Miracle Grow!
Fruit will abound from a sinner’s heart when that sinner is continually feasting on the gospel of Christ.
So let’s begin with T in our TEND acronym. T is for take time to pray so that we might settle our hearts and minds as we approach God’s Word.Pray with me.
Father, thank you for the gift of the gospel. Thank you for the shed blood of Jesus on behalf of sinners, on my own behalf. Thank you for the grace that covers us when we surrender to you. Would you nourish our hearts today in your word for your glory? Amen.
When we move through the TEND method acronym, we come to E for examine the scripture. This is where I slow down and write the verses in my journal. This gives us a chance to pay attention to details and pay attention to each word and the subject and verb of each sentence.
It’s really amazing what we will learn about God and His Word when we slow down. It is like taking the time to bend to our knees in the garden and pay attention to the smaller things.
So let’s look at the verses for today. We are working our way through Ephesians 1 and today we come to verses 7-10.
“In him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
What a stunning set of verses! As we pay attention to the details, we want to be sure to define who the pronouns are referring to. Paul is the author of this letter and he is writing to the believers in Ephesus, so the “we” here is referring to Paul and really all believers, but certainly those in Ephesus. The “him” Paul is referring to when he says “in him we have redemption” is Jesus as the previous verses made clear.
Knowing the pronouns helps us examine the verses carefully and correctly.
Then when we have examined the Scripture we want to move to N for notice the lessons.
The Bible is revealing the heart and character of God to us. So we begin noticing by asking: What does this teach about God?
And in these verses, we see that it is through His rich grace that He extends redemption and forgiveness to us. In fact, that grace is lavished on us knowingly! He knows the deep places of our hearts and minds and yet made the perfect and necessary way for us to have a relationship with the Holy God through His own blood.
That is the gospel. That is the good news of the sure hope we have when we place our faith in Jesus. We have been fully paid for by zero merit of my own!
From a lesson like that, we can ask ourselves How do I see my sin? Do I realize the costliness of it? Do I see it as no big deal or the truth that what seems to be the smallest of my sins demands full blood payment?
Our response to that might be repentance. Acknowledgment of our sin before God in prayer and agreeing with Him that it is sin and then receiving His forgiveness.
Another question might be from whom am I hoarding the gospel? Who am I failing to pray for or share the gospel with because they seem too bad, broken, or far from God?
If the gospel has been so lavishly extended to a sinner like me, who am I to keep that to myself?
As we consider the last letter in TEND, which is D for do what it says, we find ourselves responding intentionally to the questions we sense the Holy Spirit posing through this lesson.
So as we consider who we might be keeping the gospel from, this might mean we write the name of that person down and offer it to the Lord in prayer. Asking for forgiveness for hoarding what was lavished on us at no merit of our own. Then asking for God to show us the opportunity of when to share the gospel with that person.
Pray for him or her to have eyes open and a heart prepared to hear. Also, we have to remember that though we are co-laborers with God, He alone does the saving, in His time. We are to be faithful to pray and share truth, but He alone does the miracle of saving a sinner.
So who might be that person that you need to pray for or share the gospel with today? Maybe it is even a reminder for yourself to share the gospel with your own heart, remembering that your sin is covered by the blood of Jesus when you agree with Him about your sin and your need for Him.
Let’s ask the Lord to show us today our next steps as we step out of the Garden.
Lord, would you do just that and show each of us our next steps? Who is it that we have been keeping the gospel from? Who is it I need to share the gospel with? Search each of our hearts, Lord, and would you reveal to us our own need for the gospel? In Jesus’ saving name, amen.
As we close today, I want to remind you to get your free TEND guide at marieldavenport.com/start and spend time tending your soul by the Word for yourself, so that you might bear much fruit for the Father’s glory.
Until next time, friend, keep tending your soul!
