Praying for Increased Understanding of God's Blessings

Ephesians 1:18-21

God cannot give us any more grace than he’s already given in Christ.

Yet, ironically, we often pray as though we need more grace! We pray for more grace, more blessings, more power, more revelation, more guidance, and so on. When we do this, we fail to realize that we already have what we need – we simply need to understand what we’ve already been given and put it to use.

• Let’s not be like the man who buys a screwdriver every time he needs to turn a screw when he already has a dozen of them in his toolbox.
• Let’s not be like the lady who always buys a new toaster every time she makes breakfast, even though the one she has works just fine.

At the end of our honeymoon, Sarah and I drove a Dodge Caliber from Olympia National Forest, WA to Seattle. Just before we arrived at SeaTac airport, a tractor trailer threw a rock up at our windshield, leaving a nice long crack in the glass. Since we were driving a rental car, we were responsible to pay for the repairs to the tune of a few hundred dollars.

To save money on our rental, I opted not to buy renter’s insurance, which would have covered this accident. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the credit card I’d used to pay for the rental offered free rental insurance and I didn’t know that until months later. Failure to know this cost me money. Yet how many times do we, like this, ask God for benefits and blessings we already have?

We need to be more consistent in living for Christ as his church.

About this passage of Scripture (Eph 1:15-23), Max Anders shares the following remarks:

This, then, is the lot of the Christian—a rich lot but one we scarcely comprehend. We have been chosen by God the Father to be his spiritual children. In Christ, our sins have been forgiven, and we have been given an inheritance that this world knows no way to measure. In the Holy Spirit, we have been sealed in Christ, made secure until our final redemption when we will see the Lord face-to-face. Clearly, the magnitude of these blessings escapes us, or else we would be more consistent in living for him than we are. That is why Paul ends the chapter by praying for us that we might comprehend the significance and magnitude of the blessings.

(Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary [Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1999], 94-95).

That’s why we must pray for one another (and for ourselves) to understand what we’ve been given as followers of Christ. We’re children of God destined for his kingdom. Our Savior is seated as the royal monarch over all things and shares his power with us as his children and as his church. Yet we live defeated by sin and afraid of the world – and when we pray, we pray for things we already have.

To be transformed, we need God’s help to understand and apply his blessings for all they’re worth. To what degree do these blessings genuinely influence and change the way we think and live? Is our mindset shaped by these blessings? Our decisions guided by them? Our lifestyles influenced by them?

That’s what Paul prayed about – for believers to understand the spiritual realities revealed to us in the NT, about God and our relationship with him, that these realities would be major factors in our everyday lives.

He prayed for believers to understand three things:

• the hope of God’s calling (Eph 1:18)
• the riches of God’s inheritance (Eph 1:18)
• the greatness of God’s power (Eph 1:19-21)

We should pray in a similar way for one another.

Hope is a confident, unrelenting expectation of what is in the future.

This “hope of his calling” likely refers to our future resurrection from the dead in a fully restored but sinless body – to a life with God that will never end. Calling refers to the invitation we have received from God. His highlights God the Father as the one who gave the invitation (Eph 1:18), though Paul later refers to the “hope of your calling” (Eph 4:4).

This call guarantees our place in God’s kingdom, delivering us from evil in all its forms forever. Yet this call also affects our lives in many other ways. God calls us to:

• Fellowship with his Son (1 Cor 1:9).
• Peace (1 Cor 7:15).
• Grace (Gal 1:6).
• Freedom (Gal 5:13).
• His kingdom and glory (1 Thess 2:12).
• Holiness (1 Thess 4:7; cf. 2:13-14).
• Eternal life (1 Tim 6:12).
• Light (1 Pet 2:9).
• Suffering (1 Pet 2:20-21).

As we consider the hope of our calling, it should become more than a faint wish, a mirage in the desert. It should be a firm foundation and a very clear picture that guides us with increasing confidence through the darkest valleys of life.

A new believer cannot comprehend all that Christ calls us to be, do, and experience. We must understand the essential elements of the gospel message to get started in the Christian life, but there’s so much more to discover.

• On our first day of kindergarten, we became students. Yet we had no idea what that would mean in the next 20 years as we would eventually go through college.
• On the day some of us exchanged wedding vows, we became spouses. Yet we had no idea, despite premarital counseling, what our marriage would require of us.

When we begin a new job, welcome a child into the world, or move to a new country or neighborhood, we know a lot of things on one hand and so very little on the other.

The Christian life is like this. God calls us to salvation, and we respond in faith. He gives us a new perspective, a confident expectation that never goes away. We will be raised from the dead someday, like Christ himself. We will be with him forever. We know this to a degree, and it guides us through our daily lives.

The full view of our calling is far more expansive that we understand today.

Yet our confidence and anticipation of this should deepen and expand. It should motivate us to draw you closer to Christ, push through many trials, and achieve greater things for God’s glory. The full view of our calling is far more expansive that we understand today. That’s why we must pray for one another to understand the hope of our calling. We must give it serious consideration.

The “inheritance” refers to our immeasurable value to God.

In addition to better understanding the “hope of your calling,” we must also better understand “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph 1:18). This phrase describes us as God’s inheritance and as “glorious riches.” In other words, we are God’s extravagant inheritance. We have extraordinary value and immeasurable worth to him.

In describing us as God’s inheritance, Paul uses words for wealth and glory that the OT frequently uses to describe the wealth and honor of kings. 2 Chron 32:27-29, for instance:

Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable items; storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of livestock, and folds for flocks. Moreover he provided cities for himself, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much property.

2 Chronicles 32:27-29

This in mind, it is clear that God treasures us greatly. As an earthly king values his vast accumulation of treasure, buildings, property, and land, so God values us. We may know this as a fact, but do we fully comprehend the implications of this truth for our lives today?

If God values us this greatly, then how should we respond to the painful feelings of worthlessness and loneliness that creep into our souls? When other people neglect us, criticize us, and push us around, how should this truth influence our inner thoughts?

Furthermore, if God treasures us this greatly, how should we care for ourselves on a day-to-day basis, physically and spiritually? And how should we present ourselves to others?

In addition to the hope of our calling and our incredible value to God, Paul prayed for believers to better understand one more thing.

God’s power is enormous and extensive.

We must understand the sheer awesomeness of God’s power.In describing this request, Paul really emphasizes what he is trying to say. He does this in two ways. First, he uses a variety “power” words. In fact, he clusters together all the words for “power” available to him in the Greek language of that day.

• δύναμις (dunamis) refers to God’s ability to do things (“his power,” Eph 1:19). It emphasizes what he does and is doing for us – his active power.
• ἐνέργεια (energeia) refers to something that he does or accomplishes (“the working,” Eph 1:19). It emphasizes what God is able to do – his potential power.
• ἰσχύς (ischus) refers to his capability, strength, and personal potential (“mighty,” Eph 1:19).
• κράτος (kratos) refers to his might and strength (“power,” Eph 1:19).
• ἐνεργέω (energeō) refers to the act of working, producing, or causing something to happen (“worked,” Eph 1:20).

By clustering these words together, Paul emphasizes the sheer awesomeness of God’s power. Whatever power we’re up against – whether the power of nature, government, the physical strength of another person, spiritual forces, technology, evil and death, or any other power – that power is always outmatched by the power of God.

As if his point is not already clear, Paul adds two descriptive words to make his point even more powerfully (pun intended). He describes God’s power as “incredible” and “great.”

• He borrowed the word greatness (μέγεθος) from what Moses said about God’s power in Exo 15:16 when he would conquer the nations in Canaan for his people, even though those nations were superior in military numbers, technology, and skill.
• Then he borrowed incredible (ὑπερβάλλον) from what magical papyri and secular inscriptions said about the various gods of Rome, Greece, and other pagan religions.

Let’s learn to pray for one another this way. Rather than pray for things we already have, let’s pray for increased understanding and appropriation of what we’ve already been given by God through Christ!