October 15, 2017 · Ephesians 1:15–17

Praying for the Church

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I 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.

“That part of you is the unity of who you are, and your spirit before God. … And at the same time, I find very promising that this is not something that Paul is telling us to do — hey, open up your heart eyes. It's not that simple. … It's actually something that God bestows upon us through his Spirit. And this is a prayer. Lord, would you allow their hearts to open? Would you allow my eyes, in my heart, to open to you? Can I see you? This is a great Jesus-centred prayer. What he's asking is that we will be able to know who Jesus is better. If our eyes get open to this Spirit of wisdom and this Spirit, we're going to start seeing what we have. A great hope. The hope that he's called us to is this amazing hope that there is going to be everything that's broken brought to healing. All the hurt will become joy. This is a beautiful promise, a beautiful hope. The riches of our glorious inheritance is the idea: someday we will be walking on a new creation, and all the groaning has stopped, and there's rejoicing. This is a powerful God.”