“Paul’s Prayer for the Church:
That We Would Have the Eyes of our Hearts Enlightened”
Ephesians 1:15-23
All Saints Sunday, November 2, 2025
While discerning which scripture texts to guide our worship for November of this year,
I was led to consider Paul’s prayers for the Church.
After all of our celebrations and remembrances over the past year,
what better way than to begin the next 200 years for our congregation with prayer!
So today, the first Sunday of our 201st year, we join Paul in one of his prayers for the Church.
And over the next several Sundays, we will explore other prayers of the Apostle Paul,
prayers that are timely and relevant both for this congregation
and for the Church throughout the world.
Today’s prayer comes from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.
Ephesians 1:15-23
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints,
and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,
so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know
what is the hope to which he has called you,
what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe,
according to the working of his great power.
God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead
and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named,
not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet
and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body,
the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Did you know that in Paul’s original letters to the early churches, written in Koine Greek,
the common Greek language, there were no punctuation marks?
There were no periods, commas, no question marks,
and there were no capital letters to designate the beginning of new sentences.
The Greek letters just flow one after another, with no breaks in the ink,
not even for the end of a sentence.
Imagine how difficult it must have been for those early translators
to determine where and how to end one of Paul’s long-winded, run on sentences.
In our text for today, there are nine verses, but only three sentences.
In order to illuminate our understanding, let’s break down this prayer from the Apostle Paul.
First, because of their faith in Jesus Christ and their love for all the saints,
all those gathered in the body of Christ, the Church.
Paul thanks God for the house congregation that gathered in Ephesus.
Friends, as I look back over this past year of bicentennial celebrations in our congregation,
my most overwhelming feeling is that of gratitude.
I am so thankful for the history of the church, for you, for your faith and for your love.
And not just for you, but those who came before you, those on whose shoulders we stand.
Every time we would enjoy one of Frank’s bicentennial videos, or hear another moving story
from one of our alumni or one of the mission partners of the church,
I would feel deep gratitude for the faithfulness of this congregation,
and I would feel gratitude for the love made manifest in meaningful acts of service
on behalf of one another and the community.
Like Paul, “I do not cease to give thanks to God for you as I remember you in my prayers.”
Second, Paul prays that God may give the Church a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Wisdom is not the same as intellect.
There are many very smart persons in this world who can do well on all sorts of tests,
or determine a way to succeed in all sorts of games or business,
but that does not necessarily mean that those person are wise.
There is a significant difference between someone who is the smartest person in the room,
and someone who is the most wise person in the room.
When the decision being made is important, when it comes down to it,
when the decision affects the lives of many,
I’ll go with the recommendation of the wisest person most every time.
In the Bible, wisdom is considered “a priceless treasure, better than gold or silver.” (Proverbs16) Wisdom is often described as the supreme and principal thing to acquire.
Wisdom involves “skill in the art of godly living,” and God-given discernment
that leads to a righteous life, protection, and a future filled with hope.
Paul prays for the church, that they would have a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of revelation.
Revelation is not the same as scientific discovery.
In this context, revelation is related to divine disclosure about future events.
Scientific discovery is related to the things that we figure out on our own,
not necessarily by divine disclosure, but through the human means of scientific processes.
How amazing it is that we human beings know that the earth is not flat, of course,
but that it is round, and that the earth is not the center of things,
but the sun is the center of our solar system,
and that our sun is just one of millions of suns in our universe,
and that our universe is just one of millions of universes.
The human ability to learn, to discover, to understand is amazing.
We can split the atom and we can send a rover to Mars. Amazing!
But scientific discovery through human means is not the same as revelation.
Having a “spirit of revelation” means that we are open to receiving information
from beyond themselves, beyond their own minds or learning or experience.
Receiving a spirit of wisdom and revelation leads to humility before Almighty God.
When someone is granted a “spirit of wisdom and revelation”,
that person realizes very quickly their own mortality, their own finitude,
their own lack of full understanding and insight.
A spirit of wisdom and revelation leads to curiosity and wonder and awe.
The best scientists, I believe, are those who are open to revelation
and enter their scientific processes with curiosity, humility, and wonder.
Third, Paul prays that the Church may have this spirit of wisdom and revelation.
so that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened.
I confess that seeing in this spiritual, heartfelt manner has been a challenge for me.
I am very much a visual learner.
If you tell me your name, I may keep it for a bit, but it is soon gone.
But I see your name on a name tag, I am far more likely to remember it.
I have been accused in my younger years of having a somewhat photographic memory,
of remembering much of what I absorb through my eyes.
I would take copious written notes in college and seminary classes,
often repeating on paper what I was hearing through my ears.
This is mostly because my aural memory is not so strong.
What I hear tends to go in one ear and out the other.
I confess that I am also very much a “thinking” personality.
Do you remember the Myers-Briggs personality types?
Extravert or Introvert, Intuition or Sensing, Judging or Perceiving, and Thinking or Feeling.
The Thinking or Feeling types have to do with how we process information.
I process information first through my eyes and my head, my brain.
When I receive information, whether good or bad news, it goes here first (to my brain)
and eventually makes its way down to my heart.
Others process information first through their hearts.
They hear the same news and it goes directly to the heart, to the emotions.
There is no good or bad, right or wrong way to process information.
We just do so differently based on our personality types.
But, in terms of spirituality, we see differently with our hearts than we do with our heads.
Being a “Thinker” primarily, I have delved into the riches of theological discourse.
I have studied the Bible through historical-cricital lenses.
I have been a student of context and language and inherent biases.
But, it has been extremely important to my spiritual development
to learn to see, at least occasionally, with the “eyes of my heart.”
There’s a wonderful contemporary Christian song by Michael W. Smith
that meant a great deal to me in the early 2000’s. During those years,
I was doing a lot of youth ministry, and chaperoning multiple groups
to Montreat Youth Conferences and mission trips.
The song, sung by Michael W. Smith, was written by a musician named Paul Baloche.
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart.
I want to see You; I want to see You
To see You high and lifted up; Shinin’ in the light of Your glory
Pour out Your power and love; As we sing holy, holy, holy.
Holy, holy, holy; holy, holy, holy; I want to see you.
We will not likely see God in any literal sense, with the eyes in our heads,
but it can be quite hopeful to imagine that we may see God with the eyes of our hearts.
One of my youth advisors during those years, Wes Hibbard, loved being a part
of those youth trips, because he would be so moved when he witnessed
what he called “the light coming on.”
Often at a significant youth event, “the light would come on” for a number of the youth
in the group. This was not just a mental thing, not just an understanding of something new
about God or Jesus or the Bible, though that would often be a part of it.
The “light coming on” was not just a social thing, not just about about a young person
thoroughly enjoying being part of a fun and meaningful youth group experience,
though that would most often be a part of it also.
But seeing “the light come on” in a young person would be better described
as witnessing a full body – mind and heart and soul – realization, or awareness,
often for the first time for a young person,
that this – this! – is what it feels like to know Jesus and to be a part of the body of Christ!
This! is what Paul was talking about, what Paul was praying for on behalf of the church,
that, as we came to know God and experience Christ’s body – the Church –
that the “light would come on” for each of us,
because the eyes of our hearts had been enlightened.
Paul’s prayer continues.
The fourth aspect of Paul’s prayer was that, with the eyes of our hearts enlightened,
we would come to know three things:
the hope to which God has called us,
the riches of God’s glorious inheritance among the saints,
and the power of God for those who believe.
Does the North American Church today know this hope to which God calls us?
Do we know the riches of God’s inheritance?
Have we come to know and experience the power of God?
This prayer of Paul may be just as urgent in the 21st century as it was in the 1st century.
In a myriad of worldly challenges and pressures, hope is the confident expectation
that God will fulfill God’s promises, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Hope in God provides strength and perseverance in the present,
and ultimately, the promise that we cling to is that Christian hope does not disappoint us.
In the midst of earthly concerns for ourselves and for those who are suffering,
the riches of God’s inheritance have to do with experiencing the kingdom of heaven,
here and now, on earth. Living in God’s kingdom, here and now, and extending into eternity,
involves a quality of life not dependent on circumstances,
but grounded in the presence of Almighty God.
The riches of God’s glorious inheritance refers to the life hereafter, no doubt,
but it also refers to life now, among the saints of God here on earth,
living according to the values of God’s kingdom, not earthly kingdoms.
In the midst of perceived helplessness before a world gone mad or descending into chaos,
the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead,
is available for those who believe.
Resurrection power is available for the Church today.
This means that there is always hope, and that what we now see
is not the final answer for our lives or for those whom we love.
After Paul offers his prayer to the church in Ephesus,
he reminds them Church that they are the body of Christ,
that Christ is with them and will be their head, the head of the Church.
This means that the Church’s task is not to figure it all out, not to take earthly control,
not to always know what to do.
Rather, the Church’s task, in the first century, in the 21sts century, is to follow.
Our task is to lean into that spirit of wisdom and revelation,
to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened,
so that we may receive direction, instruction, and guidance.
To God be the glory in this congregation as Paul’s ancient prayers for us are answered.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
