Reflections Upon Paul’s Ephesians
1:15-23 Prayer – Part Four
Paul
specifies his petitions for the Ephesians. He asks God “to open the eyes of
their heart” and “enlighten” them to comprehend the hope which He offers in
Christ. He yearns for them to realize “the riches of his glorious inheritance
in his holy people.” The “eyes of the heart” look twice and with intention upon
spiritual and personal circumstances with gaining greater comprehension. They
yield mental insight wherein understanding takes shape in the mind. Beyond the
logical conclusions that a person derives from natural observation, the eyes of
the mind attain epiphany. The “eyes of the heart” is a type of sight that
yields clarity of mind, heart and will. Decision making is no longer done in a
myopic, one-dimensional way. The ego and rational mind no longer predominate.
Spiritually, the Holy Spirit speaks through intuition thereby allowing the
inner voice to articulate God’s will, the inner eye to see His purposes and the
inner ear to hear Him. The “eyes of the heart” opens a new realm of living and
existence through intelligence, intuition, integrity and intention. This
insight empowers disciples to understand God’s mysterious and ironic ways. This
enlightenment increasingly yields divine wisdom and spiritual revelation that
practically empowers disciples with the capacity to recognize God’s presence,
grace and truth in daily life. It enables them to progress beyond rational
concepts and grasp faith in God and hope as He selectively orchestrates human
affairs to fulfill His promises and will. Faith and hope emerge from an
interdependent relationship with Almighty God in which disciples experience
God’s unfailing love and unimpeachable faithfulness. Paul’s prayer for
enlightenment is a petition that the ability to consistently comprehend God’s
purposes and spiritual realities will equip these new believers to mature as
adherents to Christ’s teachings and building His kingdom.
The eyes of
the heart enable Joseph to forgive his brothers, renounce punishment and revenge
and spare their lives. Had Joseph remained angry, bitter and resentful, his
thirst for retaliation would have thwarted God’s plan for establishing Israel
as His chosen people through whom the nations of the earth would be blessed.
The story of Joseph in Genesis chapters 37 to 50 is one of remarkable
mysteries, ironies and forgiveness. His brothers cruelly sell him into slavery.
His master’s wife, to whom he has been most respectful and obedient, becomes
furious because Joseph does not yield to her seduction. Duplicitously, she levels
false accusations of attempted rape and maneuvers his unjust imprisonment.
Wrongfully convicted and unjustly incarcerated, Joseph spends a seemingly
endless time in prison where his fellow inmates benefit from his spiritual
gifts and kindness but are indifferent toward him. Freed before and because of
Joseph, a few of them forget their pledge to remember him on the other side.
More time passes and a famine strikes Egypt. Desperate for guidance, Pharaoh is
open to assistance from any reliable source. God orchestrates the revelation of
Joseph as His chosen instrument to resolve the famine and utilize it as the
means of furthering His plan of salvation for humankind.
In Genesis
45, Joseph serves as the prime minister of Egypt as his abilities and gifts won
Pharoah’s unqualified endorsement. His management of the famine as he averts
starvation in the nation furthers God’s will. Jospeh’s magnanimous heart
compels him to share food with surrounding nations as the expanse of the famine
threatens their populations. His sharing extends to his family who travel to
Egypt for food lest they starve. Their trips reunite Joseph and his brothers.
The ensuing twenty years transform Joseph’s heart. His compassion for people
motivates him to prevent starvation of countless people. Moreover, he learns
the necessity of forgiving his brothers. Joseph retrospectively sees through
the eyes of his heart that their dastardly deed was a component in God’s
sovereign and gracious plan.
In
revealing himself to his brothers, Joseph declares that God redeemed their evil
action and utilized it as a means of saving the lives of many people. “You
intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now
being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20) Supernaturally, Joseph
sees how God’s sovereign will redeems the years of his pain and suffering by
transforming them into His providential purpose. This insight allows Joseph to
forgive his brothers. He realizes that God transform their evil deed into a
campaign to prevent countless people from starving. Joseph’s gifts, character and
personality qualify him to become God’s instrument to save many people from
starvation and launch Israel as God’s light to the nations. Had Joseph harbored
and nurtured his thirst for revenge, he would have missed his divine destiny. I
do not trivialize the depth of Joseph’s pain and disillusionment over the
twenty years between being sold into slavery and reuniting with his brothers.
It takes considerable time to heal from childhood and formative trauma. Those
wounds are deep and thoroughgoing. Years of talk therapy may be necessary to
achieve holistic healing and peace.
Forgiveness
usually is paramount in the personal journey toward self-acceptance and
self-realization. In time, it is possible to relinquish vengeance and righteous
indignation. Looking through the eyes of the heart enables disciples to forgive
as the Lord commands. Paul asks God to impart wisdom and revelation of the Holy
Spirit to the Ephesian church. Joseph obtains wisdom as he yields his life to
Almighty God and unwaveringly trusts Him though he may not understand any contradictions
in which he lives. Undoubtedly, Joseph questions his cruel enslavement and
unjust imprisonment. Why did God allow these evil deeds to occur? Though Joseph
remains righteous, one adversity follows another one. Meanwhile, the author of
Genesis says throughout the Joseph discourse, “the Lord was with Joseph.” As
the seasons revolve for twenty years, Joseph receives divine wisdom and
revelation. God opens the eyes of Joseph’s heart and enlightens him to see
God’s will and purpose in Joseph’s life. God reveals to Joseph His plan and how
He imparts His favor to Joseph to accomplish it. Through the eyes of the heart,
Joseph realizes God’s use of mystery, irony and inconsistencies through human
pain and inequities to manifest divine love and grace. As with Joseph, Paul
hopes the embryonic community of Christian disciples in Ephesus will receive
proportionate insight to empower them to endure as believers and purveyors of
the Lord’s Gospel. He prays that God will equip them with spiritual gifts to
realize that He will utilize their personal adversity to accomplish His
purposes as He did in Joseph’s life.
Pause and
consider any experience you have had in retrospectively seeing God’s divine
purposes in your life. A wrongful termination may have catapulted you onto the
path of your destiny. You could have remained on a lifelong detour and missed
the very purpose for which you were born. A denial of admission to a graduate
school degree program may have served a similar purpose. You may have acted
hastily and applied to the wrong program. Your ego may have been seduced by a monetary
option that did not cohere with your heart’s true desires. I recall
interviewing a former banker when I worked previously as a graduate admission
administrator. She made an appointment with me to formalize her application to
a teaching program in English Education and teaching. On the previous Friday,
she learned that she would lose her job because of right sizing in her
department following a merger. For several years, she avoided termination after
other bank mergers. On that morning, she felt God’s presence and comforting
grace. She accepted a boilerplate severance package. To their great chagrin,
the human resources professionals marveled at her calm response and sincere
gratitude. She left the meeting and immediately made the call that yielded our
appointment. This former banker confessed, “I feel as if God did for me what I
simply could not do for myself. I have known for more than a decade that I only
want to teach literature to high school students. I want to share my passion
for good writing and reading with them. I want to turn on the light bulb in
their minds. But I could not pull myself away from the money.” After her
successful entry and completion of the
masters degree program, she began her career as a high school teacher.
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