Proper 29 - Christ the King | Year A | Ephesians 1:15-23 | TJ Torgerson
An older lady was recently asked, "How can we pray for you?" This lady spends a considerable amount of time baking for others, seeking ways to help and bless others, praying for others, reading spiritual and devotional books, and encouraging those around her with simple yet profound spiritual truths. She is indeed a saint.
"How can we pray for you?" was the question.
"I would like prayer for my relationship and devotion to God." Her prayer request was to know God more deeply.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul does not ask, "How can I pray for you?" Rather, he tells the Ephesian church, this is how I am praying for you, “That God may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." Notice, this is not a prayer for people to become converts to Christianity. Paul is writing to Christians. Right before this prayer he expressed gratitude for their faith in Christ. This means it is a prayer for the church people to continue growing in their relationship with God. Our journey into the depths of God is never finished! Warren Wiersbe writes, "The believer must grow in his knowledge of God. To know God personally is salvation (John 17:3). To know Him increasingly is sanctification (Phil. 3:10). To know Him perfectly is glorification (1 Cor. 13:9–12)." [1]
This same idea can be seen in the rest of Paul’s prayer. He prays that they would know God and that their spiritual eyes would be opened so they would understand these 3 things:
1. The hope that you have been called into (past/salvation).
2. The riches of his inheritance (future/glorification).
3. The power for those who believe (present/sanctification). [2]
Paul's prayer is that we know God. As we know God more intimately, we will begin to understand more deeply the hope of our salvation and the future glory that awaits us—a future where God has put all things in their right place. The more we know God, the more we will see God at work in the “in-between time,” and the more we will know now the “power for us who believe.”
This power, Paul says, is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the same power that placed all things under his feet, the same power that placed Jesus in the place of ultimate authority. It is the power that crowned Christ as King. It is Resurrection power, and we can know it, and this resurrection power can inform the situations in this world and in our lives.
It is a power that brings freedom from sin, healing to the broken, peace in the face of difficulties. It assures us that all things will be made right in the end and that even now, God is at work in the world making things right. It is the power that created a holy people—the church. It is a power that resides within the church and articulates the church as the body of Christ in the world. It is resurrection power.
"How can we pray for you?" was the question the elderly woman was asked. Her answer was simple, "Pray that my relationship with God be strengthened."
Perhaps, she knew something many of us are still learning. Maybe she understood that the deeper her relationship with God, the more intimate her knowledge of the Creator, then the more everything else would fall into its right place.
Perhaps, she understood that God was at work in the world, making all things right, and that the deepening of her relationship with God would act as a gravitational focal point in her life. The more it grew, the more everything else would be pulled into its influence, and God’s resurrection power would begin to set things right.
Did she know that at the heart of all hope, future glory, daily providence, and resurrection power was simply knowing God?
I suspect she would not have explained her simple prayer request in this manner. However, I am convinced that she knew these things as if they were embedded in her spirit by the Holy Spirit. That her knowing these things instinctually was both an answer to her prayer as well as the source of the request.
"Pray that I would know God more deeply."
[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 15.
[2] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Eph 1:18.
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