Ephesians 1:15-23, Part 2
Do you want to know God better?
That’s one of those questions Christians kind of have to answer yes to, right? If I were in a group of Christians and I said, “Raise your hands if you want to know God better,” I would wager I’d get a pretty decent response.
What Christian would publicly say, and mean it, “Nope, I don’t want to know God better”? Not many. Because if we say, “I don’t want to know God better,” we are essentially saying, “I’ve got God all figured out. Nothing more to learn here.” But God is by definition incomprehensible. God’s ways are higher than our ways. When I say that God is incomprehensible, I do not mean that we cannot know anything about God.
He has revealed himself significantly, through nature, through Jesus, through his Spirit, in his Word, through his church, so that we can know him and have a wonderfully close relationship with him. But we cannot know him totally, perfectly, completely. There is always more, a lot more, to learn about God. This is why people keep studying the Bible, keep studying theology, of which a simple definition of theology is “the study of God,” to know him more.
I think most Christians not only say they want to know God better, but they mean it. We really do want to know God better. But often we don’t know how to know him better. He might seem distant. The Bible might seem intimidating and confusing. What can we do to know God better?
We can ask God for help.
After encouraging the people about their love, in Ephesians 1, verse 17 Paul begins his prayer for them. The first request he prays for is this,
“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.
Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?
A prayer for wisdom? Yes. Asking for wisdom is a common prayer request.
But a prayer request for a spirit of wisdom and revelation?
Paul’s first prayer request right there in Ephesians 1:17. A spirit of wisdom and revelation. He wanted that for the ancient Christians. So whatever a spirit of wisdom and revelation is, it is a very good thing. Not to mention that Paul says the people will know God better because of the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Thus Paul’s prayer request here is amazing. That God would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him more. There are some really confusing things about the Bible and about God, that even the most learned scholars admit are hard to grasp. We need his help to know him more.
A spirit of wisdom and revelation says, “Lord, give me wisdom to know you more. Reveal yourself to me more. I don’t have you figured out. I want more of you.” What a wonderful prayer request for ourselves and others.
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Engaging Scripture 