Everett Henes: A matter of prayer
Prayer is a gift that God gives to his people, so that we can cast our cares on him. Too often, though, our prayers can seem like a to-do list of all our temporal needs. Those are important, but they are not preeminent. Paul shows us a better way in Ephesians 1:17-18. Paul speaks of the substance of the prayer. What does he pray for faith-filled saints? Paul prays, first, for their knowledge of God. He prays, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.”
The goal Paul has for them is that they would know God, not lots of things about God or even lots of Scripture. What we know of God is often through the Scriptures, but Paul is talking about the personal knowledge we have of him as our God, our Father. He prays that they would know God in this intimate way.
One of my favorite catechism questions is “What is God?” We need to know the answer to that question: God is a spirit; infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. That is knowing about God, but we must desire more. We must know God, to know him personally as the one who has called us, saved us, and sealed us for that last day. It is in knowing God that we know our salvation. Paul moves to look at this next, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know…”
In knowing God, we come to understand how he has acted toward us. JI Packer put it so well, “What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me.” (Knowing God)
There are three things that he prays they will know. First, “what is the hope to which he has called you.” Literally translated, it would read, “that you might know what is the hope of his calling.” The calling is God’s. This is the only way that salvation can have any hope for us at all. If the focus of hope were on our response to the calling – like so many try to make it – our hope would go up and down. No, our only true hope can be that he has called us.
In calling, he has given an inheritance to the saints. Look at the word that Paul uses to describe this inheritance, “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance.” Literally, wealth; gems. To be a Christian means that you have had the lavish grace and riches of God, in Christ, poured out upon you. It is for this reason, at least, that believers can be content no matter what their earthly circumstances. Knowing that there has been laid up for you treasure in heaven that cannot corrode of whittle away ought to impact the way you approach everything in this world. Christians are not to be captivated by what the world can offer.
Paul wants his readers to have a fuller knowledge of the hope they have, the riches they have but also the enormous power that God has worked toward them, “and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” Look at the words that Paul uses to describe the power of God toward those who believe: “immeasurable greatness,” “great might.”
It is no small thing that God has raised Christ from the dead and the point that Paul drives home is that in raising Christ from the dead, God has worked in a mighty way for believers. All of these things, though, are centered on God. The calling is his, the riches are his and the power is his, and he used all of it to the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. This is an incredible truth that needs to impact our thinking – how we look at ourselves and how we seek to live our lives.
— Pastor Everett Henes, the pastor of the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, can be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Everett Henes: A matter of prayer
