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Prayer Requests 2

             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. I 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, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:17-19)

This is another of Paul’s prayers that we can use for others and ourselves. This time, the first request is for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know Him better. One of the challenges here that requires wisdom is that we generally only have three ways to recognize that we have grown in wisdom, received revelation, or know Him better. The first is that we receive some spectacular bit of wisdom or revelation. We notice that, but God doesn’t tend to work that way. The second is that we compare ourselves to others. That leads to roller-coaster faith, up one second, down the next, and unless we’re careful, we’ll compare their up with our down, or vice versa. The third is by looking back over long periods to compare our now with our before. It’s probably safer to trust that God will answer this prayer, whether we see it or not.

The second request is multifaceted. It’s the prayer that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened, with the outcome of that being: 1) we may know the hope to which He has called us, 2) we may know the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and 3) we may know the incomparably great power for us. Read through those again, slowly. Consider each one.

I don’t seem to be an optimist. If I hope, it isn’t generally a “everything will be wonderful” sort of hope. It’s more the gritted teeth sort of hope that says, “Next.” But I’m not sure that the hope to which God has called us is what we imagine it to be. God is our hope. Even if nothing ever goes right except His provision of our salvation, God is still our hope.

I may not have the second facet right either, but as I read it, I wonder if a big chunk of the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints is the saints themselves—you know, those folks you find so tedious or hypocritical. Treasuring them is a result of the eyes of our hearts being enlightened.

The third facet is that we would know God’s power for us. Too often, I want that power to be used against someone else, but I suspect the primary use of that power is supposed to be against ourselves. The goal is for us to take the “promised land” that is our soul, to make it conform to the image of Christ.

These are, again, all great things for us to be praying for – for one another and for ourselves. I think I’d like to pray though these for every day for a while, to see what God does in answer. 

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