Verses 15 and 16 of chapter 1 have some interesting ideas about Paul's prayer life. I wonder if Paul had actually achieved that amazing expectation: pray without ceasing. These verses give me a sense that as Paul was hanging out with God, conversing with him, he (Paul) remembered to mention the church at Ephesus or reminded God about the church. He also never stopped giving thanks for them. He remembered them to God. It would be pretty interesting sometime to study Paul's prayer life.
But this week, we're studying Paul's prayer, in fact the first of his two prayers for the Ephesian church that are recorded in the book of Ephesians. It seems like anything Paul prayed about would be pretty significant. So most of our focus this week will be what he prayed for and if we have time we'll try to understand why he thought whatever he was asking for was so important.
Paul prays for two things. Remember my English teacher way of reading the Bible. There are two ideas.
1) I keep asking....that you may know Him better.
2) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
Those are the two requests.
Request number two has some clarification. Paul says he is praying for the eyes of your heart to be enlightened so that you will know these three things and he spells them out.
1) the hope to which He has called you
2) the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints
3) the incomparably great power for us who believe
The rest of verse 19 to the end of the chapter talks about that great power, which is pretty exciting too.
Do we know what Paul is asking God for? Do we know what Paul thinks is crucial for the church to grasp? And if we can make those requests concrete ideas in our minds, can we think through why these specific things were so significant in Paul's mind?
That's what we'll be trying to think through tomorrow. We will need to put our heads together!!
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