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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. (Ephesians 1:3)

In attending to the story of God that we\u2019ve been caught up in, it is important to pay attention to the action words. \xa0That is, the verbs. \xa0This tells us where things are happening and trains our attention for the places that God is at work.

Eugene Peterson does this as he works through the letter of Ephesians in one of the last books he wrote, called\xa0Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ.\xa0 It is, essentially, a commentary on the book of Ephesians. \xa0Except that it is also more than that\u2014it\u2019s a discipleship manual too, teaching how we grow up to maturity in Christ as members of Christ\u2019s church. \xa0It\u2019s a book I very much appreciate, so forgive me if I reference Peterson more often across these devotionals. \xa0Of course\u2014if you\u2019re looking for book recommendations, this is a good one!

But coming back to those action words Paul uses to train our attention on God, the first one we hear is the word \u201cbless.\u201d \xa0Three times it occurs in just this first verse. \xa0We discover that God is both the blessed one and the blesser. \xa0\u201cBlessed be\u201d or \u201cpraise to\u201d God because he has \u201cblessed\u201d us with every spiritual \u201cblessing\u201d in Christ. \xa0God is blessed, and he gives blessing.

In other words, God gives to us out of who and what He is. \xa0The blessed One blesses. \xa0This is actually true of most everything that we have from God. God is love, and God loves us. \xa0God is gracious and gives us grace. \xa0God is compassionate and shows us compassion. \xa0God is perfectly consistent with Who He Is. \xa0

The name with which God reveled himself to Moses is \u201cYahweh,\u201d which when literally translated means: \u201cI am who I am.\u201d \xa0It is out of God\u2019s being\u2014his Great \u201cI Am\u201d\u2014that every good gift flows. \xa0God is blessed. \xa0He is who he is. \xa0And so in meeting God, the Blessed One, what do we meet? \xa0We meet blessing\u2014the one who blesses us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. \xa0God gives us Himself. \xa0This means of course, that wherever we have blessings that we can name, love that we have received, grace that we have given\u2014what we have\u2014is God. \xa0What we receive, what we give, what we hold on to\u2014all of it is something of God. \xa0Which is to say: God is far more intimately involved in our lives than we may have expected!

Peterson puts it another way too. \xa0\u201cWhat God does comes out of who God is.\u201d Such that \u201cour experience of God is who God is.\u201d \xa0There is no distinction between God\u2019s being and God\u2019s doing. \xa0\u201cThere is no dividing God up into parts or attributes. \xa0\u2026We don\u2019t figure God out. We don\u2019t explain God. \xa0We don\u2019t define God. \xa0We worship God who is as he is.\u201d \xa0

So, take stock today. \xa0What of God\u2019s actions, blessings, and gifts is rippling through your life today? \xa0Take time to worship and praise him for it.