Dear Amy,
What are the eyes of our heart for?
I’m still stuck on this desert island, reading Ephesians 1. It is not a bad place to be! Consider what Paul writes about the eyes of our heart. (The heart is the seat of life and strength, the centre of one’s will. That is mind, soul, spirit, one’s entire emotional nature and understanding.) Paul writes:
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
― Ephesians 1:18-20
This is a prayer. Paul asks for enlightening of the eyes of our heart. We must ask for this thing that otherwise we may miss. Notice that what the enlightened eyes of our heart do is to know. Merely seeing is curiosity. Knowing is life-changing. What is there to know? Three things.
-
Hope. My dictionary defines hope as grounds for believing that something good may happen. It’s not wishful thinking, there are actual grounds for believing this. In our context, “something good” is understated, to say the least! May the enlightened eyes of our heart know the best thing that could possibly happen.
-
Our glorious inheritance in the saints. What is this? In v3 Paul writes that the Lord “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ”. Note the tense. Something has already happened! But what of the rest? The prophetic past tense is used throughout scripture where a future event is so certain it is written as if it had already occurred. The fulfilment of our future blessing in the heavenly realms is that certain.
-
His incomparably great power for us. This is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. It is not a small thing, and it is at work in us who believe! When we feel overwhelmed or empty, and so aware of our need for the Lord’s power and grace, perhaps his mighty strength which raised Christ from the dead will be enough. We must know this!
May the eyes of your heart be enlightened, Amy, in order that you may know, really know, these life changing things. 🙏