Hope, Riches, Power – Ephesians 1:18-21 (NIV)

Hope, Riches, Power – Ephesians 1:18-21 (NIV)

18 I pray 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 his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Ok, so here is the expanded description of what Paul prays for believers. Again, "for this reason" (for God’s glory), Paul prays we may know Him better. That the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened. Sounds mystical. Enlightenment. Wait, "in order that" that’s more like Paul. In order that what?

1. "You may know the hope which He has called you" – Hope in the Bible isn’t like "I hope it rains today" it relates more to words like trust. So "I hope in Jesus" is a way to say "I’m trusting Jesus for my salvation." I think of it like if there’s something I really want to happen and I hope/wish it will happen and there’s something that I think can make it happen, I’ll put my "hope" in that. I put my hope in Google Maps a lot to get me somewhere. It’s not a "we’ll see" but a "I’m confident in this to do it."

So what is the hope which He called us to? Jesus. So we may know Jesus: our hope. And He fulfilled it. It is finished. Past.

2. The riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people – All believers redeemed by the Son’s payment and inherited by God as His through grace. When the end is here we will be with Him redeemed and eternal. Future.

3. His incomparably great power for us who believe – That sounds significant. To elaborate he continues with that same power He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead… not just raised Him but seated Him (work is finished) at His right hand (glorified position) in the heavenly realms FAR above all rule and authority, power, dominion and all others now and forever. That’s pretty extreme. He’s saying all of these things: He raised, seated Him at His right hand above all rule, authority, power, dominion and everyone now and forever. That’s huge! For me to do that it would be pretty much nothing. But for God, there’s no higher.

The power He used to do that… that’s the power Paul is praying we may know. Present.

Paul prays they (and we) many know His hope (Jesus’ redeeming sacrifice), His riches and His great power. Paul gives us a good description of God’s power to be aware of what there is to know. If we can know these things, we would go a long way to knowing God Himself. It would also implicate a lot of other things about Him, about us and about what He’s done for us in love.

To consider the God that has these attributes, this power, this amount of dominance over all things… and that He loves us.

We tend to ask God "why?" a lot when things don’t go the way we want. Do we really want to know why? Is there any chance, if He told us, that we’d accept it as ok? Probably not. But these verses make me ask why – why would He care about me? Especially given the way I’ve treated Him. It says a lot about who He is and lets me know more about Him.

Paul’s prayers are pretty stout.