This prayer of Paul speaks about the hope God wants us to have in the future he has prepared for us

Eph. 1:18

18 I pray 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 his holy people

We use the word enlighten lightly, as in update me, or tell me more about that, but actually the deepest meaning of enlighten is ultimately God’s revelation to us. To have God’s revelation, is to have our minds and deepest part of our souls filled with the knowledge of the truth of God’s love.

We live in a world curious about secret or esoteric wisdom, but this is rather a deeper understanding of God and his purposes. The secret is out, God want’s all of us to turn to him, and he has accomplished this through sending his son Jesus to reconcile himself to the world!

The hope God has called us to is the hope of heaven, that joyful, confident expectation of a glorious future with God and Christ in a renewed world one day in resurrected immortal bodies. Queen’s mournful song ‘who wants to live forever’ reflects a scene in the movie Highlander where an immortal man watches his mortal wife die. This is so tragic, losing someone forever, but we have a Highlander with higher powers, who promises to resurrect his dead wife, and live with her forever – that is you and me, as we believe in him.

The prayer of Paul is for us, his Christian family to have such a deep understanding of the purposes and faithfulness of God, that we have an unquenchable hope in the glorious future that awaits us.

Prayer: Lord, in the words of the song I want you to ‘Open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you, I want to see you. To see you high and lifted up’. Give us a revelation of the hope of heaven, as we ponder your great and previous promises to us who believe.

A song to listen to: Open the Eyes of My Heart

Sean Kluyts Living Church – Creek Road