God, I want to see more

By: Marshall Segal

Because I have heard your faith in the Lord Jesus, I do not cease [praying for you, that God] may
give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your
hearts enlightened (Ephesians 1:15-18)

If I heard someone pray for God to open the eyes of my heart, I might think they doubted if I was
really a Christian.
Paul’s prayer for these believers seems kind of unusual, even inconsistent in the first. “Because I
have heard of your faith,” Paul writes, he prays that God “may give you the spirit of wisdom and
the revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of enlightened.” If Paul believes these
people are already believers, why he asks God to open the eyes of my heart? Don’t we just pray
like that for unbelievers?

1. Our Hope in God

Paul asked God that these loved ones know “the hope to which he has called you” (Ephesians
1:18). They needed help form God to hold onto the hope the already had. Like the disciples in
the boat during the storm. We’re far too easily frightened by the circumstance oh this life. The
darkness surrounds us, the winds blow violently, the waves come crashing into our live. It
often feels helpless, but that’s only because we’ve forgotten we’re with Jesus now.

Nothing can ultimately harm or destroy because we have been saved and secured by God
himself in his Son. And this is God – whose wrath once burned against our sin and promised
to punish us forever – this God has become for us “the God hope” (Romans 15:13). Now, by
faith, “we rejoice in hope the glory of God” (Romans 5:2)

2. Our wealth from God

Secondly, Paul prays that they would know “the riches of his glorious in heritance in the saints”
(Ephesians 1:18). Paul loved his heavenly inheritance and relied on it daily to get through the
poverty, persecution, and the temptation he experienced in his life. Nothing that could be given
to Paul, and nothing that could be taken from him, could compare with all that waited for him
God in glory.
Think about all we could suffer and lose if we had any idea of true wealth and happiness we
will have for millions of years after just a little while here on earth. The hope of an eternal in
heritance will strengthen you to sing in the midst of loss, and it will help you deny deceitful
desires of this world. It’s a sure defence against the lesser, competing pleasures constantly
warring against Christ for our heart and devotion.
May God open the eyes of our hearts to see the worth of what we have in and with him, and
the emptiness and futility of the other things and people we’re prone to worship.

3. Our Safety with God

God has saved you, and he has secured an infinite, eternal heritance for you. Thirdly, Paul
prayed that we would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who
believe” (Ephesians 1:19). Do you fell weak? We all do – some much more often than others.
But we are all weak people.
You might be falling again in the same old patterns of sin, or struggling to believe that God
could forgive your past, or seeing your inadequacies as spouse, parent, or child, or feeling
physical, emotional, or psychological burdens you can’t even explain, or experiencing any
number of a thousand other weaknesses.
God want you to know that the power to heal, the power to press on, the power to love and
minister, the power to obey – any power you need – does not come from within you but from
within Him, and if God’s Power is in you, then you have an infinite, merciful, and invincible
strength that will keep you and grow you in every circumstance. His divine power is for you,
and not against you.
Remember, the Lord himself said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness”

We Want More
We can spend the rest of our lives asking God to give us new glimpses of himself Even in
heaven – free from sin – we will never exhaust all there is to know and love about him. That’s
the main thing that will make heaven so satisfying. We will constantly be meeting more of the
infinite God – our creator, Redeemer, and Father – and never getting to the end of him, never
seeing everything there is to see.