“May the Eyes of Your Understanding be Enlightened!”

“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 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,” (Ephesians 1:16-20)

Wow, what a prayer. Honestly, we could spend multiple devotionals just on these four verses. First, we need to ensure that we have accurately translated this verse into our modern-day culture, such as the use of the Greek word “heart”. As the Greeks used it, it does not refer to emotions in the same way we commonly use the word 'heart' in our culture today. The Greeks used “kardia” to mean “understanding”, nothing to do with emotions. So, the KJV translation captures the author's idea more accurately by translating “kardia” as “understanding” rather than using the literal translation of “heart,” as the ESV, NASB, and most modern translations do.

Some of us have had loved ones who have been called home to be with their Lord. Most of us have had to deal with our will not being God’s will, and His timing not being our timing. We’ve had to conclude that our heavenly Father is in control, and we are not. We have had the “eyes of our understanding, enlightened” to God’s mercy and love!

Some of us have had illnesses and hospital stays that could have very easily been the last events of our earthly existence. However, we have seen God work through doctors, nurses, and medical teams. We have prayed that they would have the knowledge and wisdom to minister to us and help us recover, so that we can continue to serve our Savior. The “eyes of our understanding were enlightened” to Him, listening to our request, and we saw Him in action, and we know His hand is on this world and our lives.

Many of us have faced financial challenges as inflation has eroded our savings and income. We once were confident in our “savings”, only to discover that earthly savings and security can be taken away very quickly. We saw that some of our plans did not work out this past year. Things that we thought were indeed just what the Lord wanted for us just seemed to continue to be out of our reach. All these things caused us to refocus and to remember that this world and what is in it is not our home; we are just traveling through.

This year has caused some of us to refocus on God and his providential care. The “eyes of our understanding were enlightened” to what is really important and what has eternal value. We have refocused and remembered that it is Christ who has been raised from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of His Father, and that we will be seated with Him.

Perhaps some of us have come to understand the richness of God’s grace. This may be the year that some of us were indeed “born again” into the family of God, and if not us, I hope that we all know somebody who was added to God’s Kingdom.

Perhaps this was the year when you gained a deeper understanding of God’s sustaining grace. This may have been the year that you were set free of the exhausting task of always trying to please God. Maybe this was the year that you realized that you are already acceptable to God, not because of what you have done, but because of what Jesus has done for you.

Perhaps this is the year you begin resting in God’s grace and serving Him out of love and appreciation, rather than out of obligation and guilt. I don’t know if any of these capture your experience this year, but I do know that the Holy Spirit has been busy enlightening “the eyes of our understanding”. He has shown us things that we did not understand before. He has shown us new and wonderful things about His love for us. He has shown us the height and depth and breadth and length of the Love of our Father in heaven (Eph 3:18).

So, I give thanks for Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers that “the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened” to the magnificent truth about our Savior and His love for us.

I pray Paul’s prayer for each of us. Let’s all seek enlightenment through the eyes of our understanding about our loving God.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"