Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Be Thou my inheritance now and always,
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (Eph. 1:18)
An enlightened understanding knows earthly riches are temporal, rooted in evil, the enemy of faith. An understanding that knows the truth knows Godly riches are eternal, rooted in spiritual blessing, handmaiden of God. Christ, the hope of His calling. In Christ we are blessed. In Christ we were chosen. In Christ we receive grace. In Christ we have redemption. In Christ we have hope. In Christ we are saved. In Christ we have wisdom. In Christ we place our faith. In Christ we love. In love we were adopted. In adoption we inherit the riches of His glory. In Christ our inheritance is guaranteed (Eph. 1).
The hope of His calling, the glory of His inheritance. Faith to believe, love to express our belief, and hope to carry us to His kingdom. Faith draws back the curtain to behold our inheritance in Christ. Love, flowing from faith, leads to the never-ending expectation of union perfected in Christ; and hope rejoices, gazing into our celestial destiny. To hope is to know the peace of God, to trust the wisdom of God, to believe the Word of God. Hope is the answer of our heart to the revealed truth of God. Hope, the grace that looks to heaven, assuring us of a mansion prepared by the object of our hope, Jesus Christ. Our inheritance: the possession of God Himself.
Heart to heart, joined by love, where mine and thine become one. Meditation makes us possessors of God. Assimilation to His character makes us own and have Him. They who love and gaze and are being changed by still degrees into His likeness possess Him. Obedience, contemplation, transformation, these are the hands by which we here lay hold on God; and they in the heavens grasp Him just as we here on earth may do. The ‘inheritance’ is God Himself. (MacLaren’s Expositions, Eph. 1:18).
Time can never exhaust nor any expenditure empty either His storehouse or your wealth in Christ. Are you weighed down with temporal cares; worldly cares; sorrows and disappointments? Now is the time to think on the eternal blessing that is yours, beholding God Himself, the riches of your inheritance. His glorious inheritance is the manifestation of Himself to you because you love Him. His love, incorruptible, undefiled, everlasting. Your inheritance, imperishable, unfading, never-ending. By faith you have inherited, in love you have tasted, in hope you have believed. Let the words of the hymnist be your prayer this day, “Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise, be Thou my inheritance now and always.”