Thursday, April 23, 2020 – Ephesians 1:15-17
A Shift in Understanding
by, Pastor Paul Georgulis
Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-17
“15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 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.” – Ephesians 1:15-17 (New International Version)
In these verses, Paul is not praying for the Ephesian Church to gain knowledge about God, or to learn about Him and start to put their faith in Him. He’s not praying in this way because these Ephesian believers were already committed followers of Christ. What Paul is praying for here is a shift of their complete understanding of who God is and for them to understand God’s very character.
If we are honest with ourselves, perhaps we need this shift, too. Perhaps we already came to faith in Christ and lived our lives fully for Him for a while, but then life happened – we got busy, we got distracted, we allowed our focus on Jesus to wane. In these verses, Paul’s desire for the Ephesian believers, the other churches who would receive this letter, and for us today is that we would know God better. And that’s my prayer for you, as one of your pastors – that you would come to know God better. For those whose passion for God has dimmed over time, I pray that He would reinvigorate you. For those whose passion is strong, I pray that He would increase that passion and fan the flame to bring you into a deeper level of relationship with Him.
Prayer:
God, make it so we want nothing more than to be in your presence and to know you on a deeper, more intimate level. Lord, let our words be few, and let us become even more in awe of you.
In Jesus’ awe-inspiring name I pray, amen.
