Ephesians 1:18-19
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
I thought it was prudent to stop in the middle of Paul’s thought here because of the phrase at the end of the first sentence: us who believe. I think what is captured in these two verses are very paramount to being a “believer and follower of Christ.” I think that sometimes we mistake our walk with Christ, our relationship with God, and even our salvation as a one-time event. As if it is just a blurb on our Facebook timeline. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The beginning of our belief in Christ is the start of a whole new timeline all together.
Being a Christian isn’t about saying a specific prayer, getting dunked in a tub in front of everyone, and then showing up on Sundays to a meeting where we sing and listen to some guy talk for an hour. If that is how you are living out your faith, your belief, and your salvation, then you are just wasting time. Yours and probably everyone else’s around you. As Steven Furtick puts it, “you could be sleeping through some of the best parts of your Christian life.”
I’ve talked before, and I think it has been more recently, about God having a purpose for each and every one of us. We aren’t here just to amuse Him. We aren’t here by accident. We certainly aren’t where we are because of our own doing (I know, that one’s hard to swallow sometimes). The fact of the matter is that God has a specific purpose for each and every one of us. Your entire life He has been working to get you right where you are today. I know for some people that doesn’t seem like a good thing. For those of you who don’t think it is a good thing, I tell you that you are actually the most blessed of all of us. God is preparing your life to make a HUGE impact not only in you, but in those around you. He’s just waiting for you to “roger up” as we say in the military. He is patiently waiting for you to say yes.
This is what Paul is talking about in verse 18. If you seek out God’s will for your life, He will reveal it to you and show you how to not only head in that direction, but also claim victory in Him over whatever obstacles lay before you. This isn’t just for believers, but for nonbelievers just the same. I suddenly think of the old Marine Corps commercial about climbing the volcanic mountain and slaying the dragon. This is what God has called us ALL to in our lives. He has a specific dragon picked out for each and every one of us to slay…you just have to pick up the sword.
I like the word enlightened because it has so much imagery and explanation. I think ofenlightenment as not only a realization, bot a realization that inspires. This inspiration comes from the hope of His calling. Certainly we don’t feel worthy of enlightenment, hope, or even a Godly calling, but He has told us that we are worthy, because He said so.
When I was in the Marines, we talked a lot about fighting for freedom, peace, and democracy. I think these are mere humanistic words to describe the overwhelming sense of comfort and peace that is found in the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. We constantly seek for euphoria in this world that doesn’t exist. Even though it doesn’t exist, we continue to try to experience it through religion, drugs, sex, stealing, anger, codependency, alcohol, work, etc. However, if we stop and think about this perfect euphoria, we realize that it can only come from God. We try to use human methods to achieve the “God feeling” and fall short, then we curse Him because we cannot achieve it. We don’t realize that He has been telling us all along what we have to do to achieve this.
Will you pick up your sword today and fight for the destiny God has created you for? If you don’t even know what your sword is or where it is, will you search for it?
