"Praying with Paul"

Recently, as Jenise and I were walking around Central Park in Manhattan we were reflecting on the incredible goodness of God in opening opportunities for her. We talked about how her dreams had changed over the past ten years. We talked of how there had been a constant revision of hopes and dreams because God continually was doing exceedingly, abundantly more than she could have asked or anticipated.

As we quoted that last sentence together, we looked at each other and I choked up. We were experiencing in that moment there on a 'walking path' in Central Park one of those "Spirit of wisdom and revelation" moments that Paul had written about a couple of chapters earlier in his letter to Ephesus before getting to the third chapter where he says in the twentieth verse that God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine..." (New International Version)

Why did Paul keep asking God to give the folks at Ephesus a "Spirit of wisdom and revelation" and that "the eyes of (their) heart(s) may be enlightened"?

Let’s look at some of the specifics of Paul’s prayer for those in Ephesus:

Ephesians 1:17. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 

18. I pray also 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 the saints,

19. and his incomparably great power for us –

Paul was writing to the non-Jewish members of the church at Ephesus. They had been made to feel like second-class members of God's family. Perhaps there have been times that you have felt like a 'second class' citizen. I don't think things in our day have changed much from those of Paul's day. Racism and social distinctions are still actively destructive in Christianity.

Paul wanted to assure the non-Jewish members of the church that they could, through faith in him, approach God with freedom and confidence. And, that He "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine..." (Ephesians 3:20)

It was an absolute imperative to Paul that those 'gentile' Christians be able to

• perceive the reality of the Gift that God, in His Love, had given the entire world - Jesus!

• have the wisdom to understand that the politics of race and creed have no place in the Kingdom

• have revealed to them the sweet and precious Presence of the Savior simply through faith - without the rules and rituals that continued to bind some of the sectarian members of the congregation

• and to perceive in their 'heart' that He had called each of them to Hope!

He has indeed given us the Hope and Promise that He is able to do for us exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or think - without regard to our race, or social status, or economic limitations or what others might have thought about us.