Praise the Lord, I saw the Light!!!!
I hope you know who Minnie Pearl was. If you don’t, please go back and research her. Sarah Cannon’s wonderful character, who graced the Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw, was loved by many and even gives us the first line from Charlie Daniel’s The South’s Gonna Do It Again (yes, Minnie Pearl was from Grinders Switch).
Minnie Pearl said that when Hank Williams wrote the song lyrics above that he had seen the light. If you don’t know who Hank Williams is or why that might cause some of us to be surprised, again, please do the research. This blog is not really about Hank or Minnie.
I thought about all of this as I read Ephesians 1:18 recently. This verse goes like this: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And I really want to focus on that one phrase, May Be Enlightened.
The first thing that grabs my attention is exactly who Paul is talking to. He is talking to the saints in Ephesus. Get it? Saints. Saints are what Paul calls believers and followers of Jesus Christ. So, what Paul is not talking about is some sort of enlightenment that brings people to salvation. He is not praying for people to come to Christ.
The next thing that grabs my attention is Paul prays this. This is a sentence prayer. Paul is praying this will happen. He is not giving these Ephesian saints step by step instructions on how to know the hope of His calling. He doesn’t tell them how to know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in them. No, Paul prays that their hearts will be enlightened.
Why?
Why pray for it? Why not say if they will get up in the morning and spend two hours in prayer and Bible study the eyes of your heart will be enlightened? Why not say if they will spend time in fellowship with other believers this will happen? Why not say that if they will spend time evangelizing they will be enlightened? Why, I ask?
Because then they would be able to brag on themselves. They would be able to boast on what they had done to grow in the Lord. They would be able to tell everyone what they had done. “See! See! See what I have done to be enlightened.” That is what the Ephesians would do if enlightenment was up to them. And let’s face it. Most of us would do the same thing. Maybe all of us. Instead, Paul prays for this enlightenment. And sets the example for the rest of us.
Finally, let’s look at who Paul prays to. He is praying to God through Christ. He is leaving the enlightenment of the hearts of the Ephesian believers in God’s hands. He is trusting it to the Lord. He is placing this enlightenment in God’s grace. It is totally up to God as far as Paul is concerned.
What does this mean for us?
You and I cannot ensure that our hearts will be enlightened. We cannot do anything to make sure that we grow and mature in the Lord. We can pray. We can study our Bibles. We can fellowship. We can evangelize. We can worship.
And none of it is enough.
It is not enough is we are not enlightened.
That is up to Him. His choice. Not you. Not me. Him.
Praise the Lord! I saw the Light!
January 24, 2010 at 11:33 pm |
One question comes to mind, if it’s totally up to God, why does Paul pray for it to happen, won’t it happen anyway?
Also, according to Greek scholars, the word “calling,” refers to a divine “invitation” not an appointment. I think there’s a definite difference.
January 26, 2010 at 1:43 am |
Why pray for anything? It is totally up to God. The way I see prayer is that we talk to God and we get in line with God’s will. We don’t just pray and He says, “Hey, Kim sure has been asking for that thing and by Golly, I wasn’t going to give it to her, but I’m going to now.” So, Paul seems to me to be saying, “Hey, this is up to God. I can do everything I can to put myself and you, yourself in position to grow and mature, but when it comes down to it, it’s up to Him. So I pray that it may happen or might happen because He is the one who makes the decision that it will happen.” And why did you comment here instead of Facebook?