JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
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In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
13And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own* by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
15Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere,* 16I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom* and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18I 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.*
19I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
Remember how Paul met those believers in Ephesus who didn’t even know about the Holy Spirit yet? After leaving Ephesus in Acts 19, sometime later, Paul wrote them a letter—the book of Ephesians. There are a few important things that Paul taught in the letter. Today, let’s look at them and see why it’s important.
You get “sealed” (Ephesians 1:13-14). In school when you get a new book, what’s the first thing you do? You write your name in it to show everyone that it belongs to you. God does the same thing when we believe in Jesus. When you believe in Jesus, God gives you the Holy Spirit like writing his name in us. It’s not just a one-time thing. The Holy Spirit stays with you and helps lead and guide you in knowing Jesus even more.
We can really know God (Ephesians 1:15-17). Even though Paul had already taught this church for two whole years in Acts 19, he still prayed that they would truly know God—not just know facts about him. We can learn a lot about God and still have more room to actually know him. We get to know him by reading his Word, praying, and asking the Holy Spirit to show us what God is teaching us.
Jesus is over everything (Ephesians 1:20-23). Paul wrote that Jesus is above every ruler and power there is, and he’s the head of the church. This means, anyone who believes in Jesus is connected to him. The church is like a body—and what makes a body work? The head or our brain. If Jesus is the head of the church, he is in charge and leading the body, or us. We get to be part of what Jesus is leading the church to do.
So here’s what we learned today: knowing about God is a good start, but God wants so much more for you than that. He wants you to actually know him. The same Holy Spirit that sealed the Ephesians, like a name written in a book, lives in you if you believe in Jesus. And just like Paul prayed for that church, you get to keep growing in really knowing God.
Pick one way to get to know Jesus better:
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you know Jesus more.