Sure, I will Pray for You
How often have you told someone,
"I will pray for you." Many times it is in response to a specific
request someone has asked us to pray for. Sometimes it is simply a general
response that is trying to tell the person that you will remember them during
the next few weeks.
I
wonder what the Apostle Paul would pray about for us if he had the chance? I'm
not sure, but we have an opportunity to get a glimpse of what it might be since
we have some examples of what he prayed for people in a variety of churches.
Perhaps one of the most exciting and inspiring prayers is found in Ephesians
1:18-19a,
"I
pray that that eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what
is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who
believe."
Notice, Paul prays for the
preparation of his audience and includes the purpose of the petition of his
prayer. In preparation he desires that the eyes of their heart be enlightened.
This is a figure of speech since we know that hearts do not have eyes. His
desire is that they will be able to see by being enlightened. The word from
which we get the term "photograph" carries the idea of being
illuminated. Paul desires us to be illuminated, enlightened so as to see
clearly and not be unclear. But what is the content of this prayer that He
desires for us to see and understand?
Notice three interconnected
elements brought into focus:
- That we may
know the hope of our calling. Paul had spoken of the calling before in
1:4. He hopes that we see clearly the hope of our hope in being chosen by
God.
- That we know
the riches of His inheritance. Paul has spoken of this in 1:14 and will
elaborate later in the book about our inheritance in Christ (4:30). It is
tied to our hope of our calling.
- That we might
understand the surpassing greatness of His power toward us.
Paul's
prayer desires that we be enlightened to understand the greatness of God's
power, manifested by Him choosing us in the past and securing an inheritance in
the future, so as to live faithfully for Him in the present. All of this is to
be elaborated on in the rest of the Letter to the Ephesians.
I often pray this prayer for
myself and my family that we would see ever more clearly the greatness and
goodness of the glorious grace of God.
Serving Him with you
Until
He comes for us,
Fred