{"id":10095,"date":"2022-03-22T05:37:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T10:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-ephesians-6\/"},"modified":"2022-02-24T10:57:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T16:57:40","slug":"devotional-on-ephesians-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-ephesians-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Ephesians"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_16149\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16149\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7259636.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7259636-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-large wp-image-16149\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7259636-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7259636-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7259636-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7259636-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/P7259636.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16149\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; south of Florence, OR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Not a walk in the park <\/p>\n<p>Ephesians 6: Be prepared. You\u2019re up against far more than you can handle on your own.<\/p>\n<p>Several years ago a popular song included the phrase \u201cI beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden.\u201d  Know what?  That\u2019s life in general and, in light of this passage, the Christian life in particular.  Paul writes this passage from jail.  He warns his readers that they have an enemy who&#8217;s intent on destroying them.  Their spiritual journey is no game and how they live in the here and now has eternal consequences.  If a person starts out living for the Lord thinking it\u2019s going to be a stroll in a rose garden they&#8217;re in for some unpleasant surprises.  The Apostle focuses on spiritual adversaries, unseen but real.  It\u2019s not unreasonable to add the common inconveniences and out and out tragedies of life to this mix.  I\u2019m not to be naive about all this.  There are times when it becomes clear that I\u2019m up against far more than I can handle.  Happily, the Lord hasn\u2019t put us out here in real life without some resources. Paul urges us to take advantage of many powerful resources that are at our fingertips.  He reminds us that \u201cTruth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words.\u201d  He directs us to God\u2019s Word and prayer.  It\u2019s no rose garden, but I have everything I need to live a victorious, overcoming life.  <\/p>\n<p>Take Away: Life isn\u2019t always easy but it\u2019s important to remember the Lord\u2019s faithful provision for us.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not a walk in the park Ephesians 6: Be prepared. You\u2019re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Several years ago a popular song included the phrase \u201cI beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden.\u201d Know what? That\u2019s life in general and, in light of this passage, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491,1428],"tags":[1334,797,1131],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10095"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16151,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10095\/revisions\/16151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}