“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” —Ephesians 1:15–19
What are two things Paul isn’t praying for?
- A change in
- A second
That We May Know Him
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” Philippians 3:8
The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy that can ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom we call Father…
Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the. And while humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. There is in contemplating Christ a balm for every wound. In considering the Father, there is a for every grief, and in the influence of the Holy Spirit there is a salve for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea—be lost in his immensity. And you will come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so the soul, so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow—so speak peace to the winds of trial—as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. —Charles Spurgeon “instead of breathing this life-giving air of heaven, their windows are closed. and their doors are shut, and they are
with their own exhalation. They are breathing over again and again their own breath, from which all is gone.” —E. W. Bullinger “We are
to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know God. Disregard the of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfold, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul … Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the God whose attributes they are.” —J. I. Packer
Hope to which we’re called
Riches of his inheritance in the saints
“Think of it, he owns all the heavens and numberless worlds, but we are his
. The redeemed are worth more than the universe. We ought to be delirious with this ! Paul prays that we will see this with out heart’s eyes.” —R. Kent Hughes