Read Attentively:
Ephesians 1:15-23
15
15 Therefore, I, too, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and of your love for all the holy ones, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. 18 May the eyes of [your] hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, 20 which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, 21 far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Ok..so from the beginning, I notice one thing--there are a LOT of comma splices and run-on sentences here. (English geek, I know...) That means that this passage can be difficult to understand unless you understand the purpose for all of those commas.
As an overview, I can tell that this is a prayer or blessing that the author wrote for the reader. I know this because the author starts off saying that he always remembers the reader in his prayers and then goes on to say HOW he does so and what he prays for.
When I run into a bunch of run-ons and comma splices, I understand that the author is sort of "listing" a bunch of things that are all related. SO, I find it helpful to LIST the things in order that I find in the passage, often using the commas to help guide that list. Here's what that might look like. (Keep in mind, these techniques are not always perfect).
I am going to start off where I see the first "that", because THAT is where the list really begins. I am also going to OMIT the "asides" caused by comma splices because they make the passage confusing. These "asides" are marked by commas--->one at the beginning of the aside and one at the end of the aside. Finally, I will INDENT and add an arrow after the quality or virtue that is being prayed for so the extra words don't confuse our list. We can come back to the post-amble later, but for the moment, I just want to get down to the bare bones-->what is this guy asking God for here??
SO...I'll summarize that first run-on sentence as a starting point...
I always give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, THAT:
-The God of our Lord Jesus Christ...may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation
---> resulting in knowledge of Him
-the eyes of your hearts be enlightened
----> that you may know:
-what is the hope that belongs to His call
-what are the riches of glory in his inheritance...
-what is the surpassing greatness of His power...
STOP. These are the 2 things that the author is praying for--that God would give the reader a spirit of wisdom and revelation and that their eyes would be enlightened. Everything that comes after "power" is a SUB-POINT of "what is the surpassing greatness of His power"...it is an explanation or an expansion of that power. The author is EXPLAINING to the reader exactly what that power entails. We could make a new list about that power like this:
What is the surpassing greatness of His power:
-raising Him from the dead
-seating Him at His right hand in the heavens
-far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name...
-put all things beneath His feet
-gave Him as head over all things to the church...
-the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way
All of these things literally are describing and explaining God's power and what His power includes.
When we list it like this, it is a bit easier to break down and understand. This is a good place to move on to the next step in PRIMA--> Imagine
Imagine: Think about this...this amazing apostle of the Lord is writing to YOU...telling you that he is praying for you---not only that, he tells you exactly WHAT he is praying FOR... that's pretty cool, right? I know that sometimes when people say they are praying for me, I wonder if they really are, or if they just felt like that was the right thing to say at the time...but when it is spelled out like this, you know they really ARE praying for you..and if they weren't, they certainly just did when they extended that blessing. The really cool thing here, is that scripture transcends time, so the author meant this prayer and blessing NOT just for the reader at the time--the church in Ephesus--he ALSO meant it for YOU and me. That's pretty cool.
Meditate: The author also uses this blessing as a way to remind the reader of God's power and promises. Prayer should always do that--> it should always remind us of God's greatness. Jesus demonstrates this for us in the Our Father when he says "Hallowed be thy name". That means "HOLY be your name" ..it reminds us of the CHARACTER of God. One of the most powerful thing about praying WITH someone (like in a way that they can actually HEAR you...) is that your words can remind them of God's character and His promises. If you only go home and pray for them when you are alone, they cannot benefit from the promises that YOU know about that has caused you to know that God CAN indeed help them. It's like taking a minute to tell them "hey, I'm praying for you NOT because I pity you, but because this God we serve is AWESOME, He loves you, and He is ABLE to help you with this situation." Praying for someone is ALWAYS powerful, but praying for someone OUT LOUD or IN WRITING can be something even more powerful because it plants a little seed of God's promises into the heart of the person you are praying for.
All of that being said, we haven't even really looked at what is being prayed FOR yet today...we have simply looked at the FORM of the prayer and the RATIONALE as to why it was written down.
TRY THIS: pray this prayer for yourself over the next few days...just insert "I" or "me" for the "you"s. I also like to put it into first person, changing the references to God to "you" instead of "Him".... something like this:
"Father of Glory, give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation, resulting in knowledge of you. May the eyes of my heart be enlightened, that I may know what is the hope that belongs to your call, what are the riches of glory in your inheritance...and what is the surpassing greatness of Your power...which You worked out in Christ by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at Your right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named...you put all things beneath His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church..."
It's important to look at those big words and figure out what they mean.
Essentially, the last part talks about the fact that God is bigger and stronger than ALL things, but specifies these 4 things: principality, authority, power and dominion.
Principality---> principles, ideas, thoughts, temptations
Authority---> governments, anyone who is above yourself in power (could be a teacher, parent, etc.)
Power ---> this includes the powers of evil and the works of satan
Dominion ---> anything that has power over you or that "dominates" you...this could refer to addictions, oppressions, depressions...any spirit that could dominate you
Let's move onto the next step and complete our PRIMA--> Apply
Apply: There are a couple of things to take from this (and a lot more if we had more time to break it down!) I'm taking away these things today:
1. This is an awesome and powerful prayer that I can pray for myself and also for my friends, loved ones and the greater body of believers out there.
2. Spoken or Written prayer can be even more powerful and provide IMMEDIATE blessings when we remember God's character and promises in our prayers.
3. That God is BIGGER than and BETTER than EVERYthing that could possibly come against me. He is fully able to defeat these things---and in the resurrection, HE ALREADY HAS!
Check back tomorrow for a deeper look at this Sunday's 1st reading: Acts 1:15-26
Here's a look at the schedule for the rest of this week:
Tuesday (tomorrow): Reading 1: Acts 1:15-26
Wednesday (May 16): Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103:1-20
Thursday (May 17): Reading 2: 1 John 4:11-16
Friday (May 18): Gospel: John 17:11-19
Thanks for checkin' in! Talk to you tomorrow!
-Candice
Saturday (April 14): Ephesians 1:15-23
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