Through The Bible in a Year - September 4, 2026

“Remembering you in my prayers… That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…” - Ephesians 1:17-18

Paul doesn’t pray for better circumstances. He doesn’t pray for persecution to stop, for the Ephesians’ house churches to become larger and safer, or for the political climate to improve.

He prays for something that would make all those things endurable. He prays that God would open the eyes of the Ephesians’ hearts.

Not the eyes in their heads or of their minds. The eyes of their hearts.

Intuitively we understand why: you can understand something intellectually—know the facts, recite the theology, answer the quiz correctly—and still not see its significance for your life or soul. Your heart can be completely blind to what your mind already knows.

Paul prays that the Spirit of wisdom and revelation would give the Ephesians genuine knowledge of God—heart knowledge, not just head knowledge. The kind of knowing that changes how you feel when you wake up in the morning, how you respond to crises, whom you love and why. The kind of seeing that makes hope feel real rather than theoretical.

When the Covid pandemic was forcing people to shelter-in-place—God was using the stress to strip away what people had been depending on. Affluence. Entertainment. Achievement. Distraction. When the lives of all were threatened, priorities became more clear. In that stripping away, people began looking for something that was not dependent on material gain or personal enjoyment. At the height of the Covid crisis, the same number of people reached out to evangelism ministries online as applied for unemployment benefits. Scales were falling from eyes. Hearts were opening to see what they’d been missing.

John Calvin, ministering through plague and war and religious persecution, prayed: “Lord, how can we survive, except our rescue consists in seeing God our Father? The love of God that is eternal is what tranquilizes the heart against the pain of this moment.”

Relief was not in better news. Not easier circumstances. Just clearer sight of who God is.

Respond: What has been covering the eyes of your heart lately? What has been giving your heart its meaning, its security, its hope—that isn’t about God’s care of you?

Paul prays specifically for three things to be seen: hope beyond personal abilities, the security of our heavenly inheritance, and spiritual power. Today, ask God to open the eyes of your heart to those blessings. Say to the Lord in prayer, “I want to see You clearly. Open my eyes to the hope I have in You, to my eternal inheritance that indicates how precious I am to You, and to the power You’re working in and around me.”

Prayer: Father of glory, I ask what Paul asked: open the eyes of my heart. I know things about You with my head that my heart hasn’t fully grasped. The hope I have in Jesus—let me treasure it, not just know it. The inheritance that is mine—let it claim my heart not just be claimed as a truth in my head. The power You’re working in my life—let me trust it, not just acknowledge it. Strip away what’s covering my heart’s sight. In Jesus’ name, Amen.