Our devotional in Paul’s prayers and prayer reports continues!
Ephesians 1:15-19 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
This is our second day in the first of the ‘major’ prayers that most people associate with Paul.
Imagine yourself as one of the believers in Ephesus. Paul prays for you and asks that God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus, would give you spiritual wisdom and reveal himself to you, so that you might know Him more fully. In verse 18 he goes on to ask that the eyes of your heart be enlightened – in other words, that God would give you a heart knowledge of three truths:
(1) the hope to which he has called you
(2) the glorious riches of his inheritance in the saints,
(3) and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Do you pray this way for others (or even for yourself)? Do you pray that your loved ones and brothers and sisters in Christ would know that even in a groaning fallen world, he has called us and therefore we have hope?
Do you pray that they would know that God considers us as his rich inheritance? My wife loves the Old Testament phrase ‘treasured possession.’ This is a New Testament equivalent, indicating how precious his people are to God. They are, so to speak, what he looks forward to enjoying forever.
Do you pray that people would know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power? Often people go through life not really believing that God is at work, or doubting that he is able to work. Paul prays that they would have hearts that see how incomparably powerful the God they hope in really is.
One of the ways to remember God’s power is to look at creation. This version of I Sing the Mighty Power of God has beautiful footage.
