You Will Truly See
Day 7 Who Are You — REALLY?: Ephesians 1:17–19
Introduction
You’ve crossed your own living room in the dark. You know roughly where the couch is. You know the doorway is somewhere ahead. You make it through — slowly, hands out, shins braced — and if anyone asked, you’d say yes, of course you know that room.
Then someone flips the light on. Nothing was added. No furniture arrived. It’s the same room you were already standing in, except now you can see it all at once, without having to feel for any of it.
Paul has spent fourteen verses telling these people what they have. Chosen. Redeemed. Sealed. And the very first thing he asks God for, once he finally starts asking, isn’t more.
It’s light.
Scripture
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray 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 his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. — Ephesians 1:17–19
Reflection
What’s Happening in the Text
Yesterday Paul gave thanks. Here he starts asking, and he says he keeps asking — this is the standing request, the one he brings back. What he wants for them is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and he names the purpose plainly: so that you may know him better. Not so they’d know more. So they’d know him.
Then the phrase that carries the day: “the eyes of your heart.” In Paul’s world the heart wasn’t the feeling department. It was the whole inner person — mind, will, affections, the place you actually see from and decide from. And he asks that those eyes be enlightened. Flooded with light.
Now look at what he wants them to see. The hope of their calling. The riches of their inheritance. God’s incomparably great power. Three things — and every one of them is already true for these readers. Paul isn’t asking God to send hope, or supply riches, or generate power. All of it is in the room already. He’s asking that they’d be able to see it.
What This Means for You
You can recite it and still not feel it. Last week you read about being chosen before the world began, bought back at full price, sealed with God’s own Spirit. And there’s a decent chance you closed the page and went right back to feeling like someone barely holding things together.
That isn’t hypocrisy, and it isn’t weak faith. It’s the dark living room. You know where the furniture is. You just can’t see any of it, so you move through your day braced, hands out, taking the whole thing slowly.
Make no mistake, Paul knew that would happen. And his response wasn’t believe harder. He didn’t tell them to concentrate, or work up more feeling, or squint until the truth came into focus. He asked God to turn the light on. Seeing takes two things, eyes and light, and Paul doesn’t assume you can supply either one. Which means seeing is not one more thing you have to produce. It’s the next thing you receive.
You do have a part. You show up, you ask, you keep the request standing the way Paul kept his standing. But you are not the source of your own light, and the reason you can’t see is not a verdict on you. It’s just dark, but there’s light for the asking.
And notice where this seeing is going. Not toward better self-understanding, not toward finally feeling secure. Toward Him. The point of the light was never the furniture.
What you’re missing isn’t supply. It’s sight. And Paul doesn’t tell you to squint harder — he asks God to turn the light on.
Grace Note
And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. — 2 Kings 6:17
Nothing was added to that hillside. The army were already there. The only thing that changed was the servant’s ability to see.
Prayer Prompt
Father, I can say the words. I’ve been saying them all week. Chosen, bought back, sealed, kept. And then I put it down and go be a person who feels like he’s barely holding on.
I don’t think what I’m missing is more from you. I think I’ve been handed things I can’t see yet, and I’ve been calling that a failure of mine.
I’m tired of moving through my life with my hands out, bracing for furniture. I don’t want to work up a feeling about you. I want to actually see what’s here.
So do what I can’t. Shine your light on your Word. Open my eyes. Not so I’ll finally feel better about myself — so I’ll know you better than I did yesterday.
Amen.
Response
1. Contemplative: Sit for five minutes with one request and nothing else: Open my eyes. Don’t fill the silence with anything more. It’s a complete prayer.
2. Observational: Go looking today for one thing that was already there and you hadn’t seen — in a person, in your ordinary day, in something you’ve walked past for years. At the end of the day, tell God what you found.
3. Verbal/Read Aloud: Read verses 18 and 19 out loud, but as a request instead of a description — let me know the hope, let me see the riches, let me feel the power. Same words. Asked for, not just read.
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© Steve Peschke / This Is The Way