“Praise to the glory of His grace”

"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you" (Ephesians 1:16-18 ESV)

Here is a challenge to you: Read through the first three chapters of Ephesians and count by chapter how many times the word grace comes up. I came up with eight times. Paul must have had something important to say if he mentions grace in eight out of 66 verses (about 12%). We should pay attention.

In the first three Chapters of this letter, Paul is teaching these first-century believers, who have only been Christians for a decade or so, the truths of their Salvation. I have heard Pastor Farley say in Texas, “If you think your salvation only gets you into heaven, you are missing an awful lot of blessings.”

When you read Chapter 1, you see that Paul teaches doctrine about the Trinity, the adoption of the believer into God’s family, redemption and how we obtain it, total forgiveness of ALL our sins, Christology, God’s eternal will, Pneumatology and the giving of the Holy Spirit to every believer. He teaches about prayer, the eternality of the believer and Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the supremacy of Christ, and how the church (all believers) is Christ’s body. This chapter is a great introduction to systematic theology—the organized, systematic study of the teaching of God's attributes and marvelous grace (you can find a section on this at the back of most study Bible).

I love verses 16-18, where Paul says, "remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”  “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” literally, it reads, “being enlightened the eyes of the heart of you.” Most translations add “I pray” to smooth out the English and in keeping with the context of these verses where Paul was praying for these believers (see verses 15-17). “The eyes of your heart”, what a picture Paul paints with these words. The heart, the center of our emotions, cannot help but be involved after the Grace of God saves us. Remember, it was the Prophet Ezekiel in 36:26 that says, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

It was the Apostle Paul who wrote in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”; “and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:27). The phrase “eyes of our hearts” needs to be used more when we talk about believers.

One prayer that I constantly use on Sunday mornings is, “Lord, open our hearts to hear your word and to know how we may serve you better.” Is that your prayer also? Many of us pray for our Pastors (and we should) to explain God’s word so that we might better understand it. But that is only half of the formula; we also need to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened to hear what is being preached. Without the eyes of our hearts being enlightened, we will miss the wonderful truths of God’s word. Then, in verse 18a, we see why Paul wants the eyes of our hearts 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.” All of these are further explained in Chapters 1-3.

Paul wrote that he prays for the “eyes of their hearts to be enlightened.” I pray that for each and every one of you reading this devotional. I ask that you pray the exact same thing for me. We all need the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened. One other thing that I need to be reminded of quite frequently is found in verses 18-23, which states that all things are under the control of our Savior. “And He put all things in subjection under His feet…” All things? Really? Can I really trust that Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand in heavenly places and that everything is under the control of our Savior? Can I really believe that? Do I really believe that? It is pretty easy to sit in our pews on Sunday morning and with our fellow Church attendees to believe that. But what about when we listen to the 7:00 News on Monday evening? When it seems like the whole world has gone mad? Remember, Paul uses these first three chapters of this letter to teach fundamental truths about God and show that we can trust every promise or statement He makes. So, yes, you really can believe that “He has put all things in subjection under His feet…”

God controls every situation; even if it does not seem like it right now, we can trust His word.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"