Open The Eyes of My Heart, Lord!

What if our prayers were published?

That’s a fascinating (and slightly scary) thought, isn’t it? What if every prayer you prayed, word for word, somehow ended up on the Internet so that anyone, anywhere could read them? Would your prayers be worth reading if they were published? And would they qualify for the pages of Holy Scripture or would they be fit for the National Enquirer?

If prayer is the language of the heart, what is your heart saying?
How do you pray? You can learn to pray by studying the great prayers of the Bible. If we want the Lord to teach us to pray, this is a good place to start. After all, prayer is the thermometer of the soul. It tells us how hot or how cold our spiritual life is. If we want to know what a person believes, don’t tell us what they say; tell us what they pray. A person may say many things, but when they pray, their heart is fully revealed.

With that in mind, we turn to the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1:15-23. The heart of the prayer comes at the end of verse 17 where Paul prays “so that you may know him better.” That’s it! That’s the whole prayer right there. Paul is praying that the Ephesians might know God better. This means to know Him deeply, personally, intimately. For instance, we can say we know the president. We know who he is and what he looks like. If we see his picture we know he is president. But we don’t know him personally and he doesn’t know us from Adam’s housecat. Now I can say know my wife. That’s an entirely different kind of knowing. After almost 45 years of marriage this has a different meaning than saying I know the president. And that’s the sort of knowledge Paul is praying for.

To Know Him Better
“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." (Ephesians 1:17).

There are three levels of knowing God. First, there is the level of experience. All of us who know the Lord have some experiences with him that we can use to help others. Second, there is the level of knowledge. This comes from going to church, listening to sermons, reading the Bible, reading good books, maybe even going to a Christian college or to a seminary. Most people consider knowledge a higher level of the spiritual life. But this is not enough. There is a third level, which is called the level of wisdom. This level comes only by prayer.

At this level we begin to see things through God’s eyes and less through our eyes. Peace only comes from this level. It is not measurable, explainable, nor understandable. Levels 1 and 2 are not always prerequisites to reach this level. Prayer can lift the illiterate to great levels of peace and wisdom where certain PhDs in religion may feel empty. Our prayers become less ‘gimme’ and more ‘help me see what you want me to learn through this–to deepen my relationship with you.’"
God invites us to seek his face. He wants us to know him better. It’s not as if our Heavenly Father is hiding himself from us. But we can only have a close relationship with him if we will seek it in prayer. That’s the burden of Paul’s prayer–for a Level 3 relationship with God that doesn’t depend on knowledge or experience but comes through wisdom as we seek the Lord. Any of us can have that sort of relationship with God if we want it, and if we are willing to pay the price to have it.

Open the Eyes of Our Hearts
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened" (Ephesians 1:18a).
This is the heart of the prayer. It is also the only time the phrase “the eyes of your heart” appears in the New Testament. That means that this is a significant truth that demands our attention. When Paul speaks of “your heart,” he’s not referring to the organ in your chest that pumps blood throughout your body. The term “heart” refers to what we might call “the real you,” the place inside where the decisions of life are made. The heart is the place where you decide what values you will live by and what direction you will go and how you will live your life each day.

Every important decision you make is made by your heart. And your heart has eyes that can be opened or shut. When the eyes of your heart are closed to the light of God, you stumble blindly through life, making one dumb choice after another. You fall into sinful patterns, you break God’s Laws, you end up driving into the ditch, you make the same mistakes over and over again, and you enter one dead-end relationship after another. Why? Because the eyes of your heart are shut and you lack moral vision. The light of God is shut out of your life. And that means you can see and be blind at the same time. That is, you can have 20/20 vision with your physical eyes but the eyes of your heart can be blind to the light of God. There are lots of people like that in the world. Physically they can see but spiritually they are totally blind.

A lot of Christians live like that. And until those eyes are opened, all the yelling in the world won’t make much difference.

Paul prayed for the Ephesians that “the eyes of your heart might be opened.” One translation says, “that the eyes of your heart might be flooded with light." Opening blind eyes is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. He and he alone can do it. But he can do it, and this is the source of our hope. This is why we pray for ourselves, for our children and grandchildren and for our family members and for friends and loved ones who today are far from God. As our children grow older, we discover over and over again how little control we have over them. We cannot compel their obedience because we cannot compel their hearts. But we can pray and cry out to God and say, “O Lord, open the eyes of their heart. Help them to see the light of truth.”

Christ at the Center of Life
There are two radically different ways of looking at things. Either the world is at the center and Christ is around the outside edge or Christ is at the center of life and the world is at the edge. So many Christians have bought into the notion that this world is all that matters. They’ve pushed Christ to the outskirts of life. But when Christ comes to the center, the world is seen for what it really is–something on the edge. Something not nearly as important as we want to make it!

Christ is like a football game. You’re either on the bench or you’re in the game. Instead of sitting on the bench goofing off we ought to be in the game serving the Lord. Bench warmers sit around, goof off, laugh, cut up, and trade jokes while the game is going on. When we decide to get in the game, we won’t have time to do goof off.

Paul prays “….that you may know the hope to which he has called you,” (Ephesians 1:18b). This hope refers back to the moment of when the Ephesians accepted Christ. Verses 3-14 list some elements of that hope that also applies to us when we accepted Christ:

He blessed us with every spiritual blessing
He loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
He adopts us into his own family
He gave glorious grace to us who belong to his dear Son
He purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
He revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ
He makes everything work out according to his plan.
He saved us.
He gave us who believe in His Son, the Holy Spirit
And He will give us the inheritance he promised

All this is ours. It is the possession of every child of God. We are rich and blessed beyond all measure. Paul prays that we might understand how rich we already are.

Pray, Pray, and Keep on Praying
Why should we worry? Why should we fear? Why should we doubt? Why shouldn’t we go out singing? Our God has given us all we need. May we know the hope of our calling, the riches of our inheritance, and the amazing power of God. It’s all ours and it’s all wrapped up in one Person, Jesus Christ. May we might know him better. May our eyes might be opened to see things clearly. May we might love him and serve him and make him the center of our life.

So, Pray, pray, and keep on praying. Pray for each other. Husbands, pray for your wives, and wives for your husbands. Pray for your class. Pray for the new Christians you are discipling. Pray that they will be turned on by the truth of God. There are so many ways we might apply this message. First, here is a good guide to praying for our children. How long should we pray for them? And what should we pray for them? The answer is, never stop praying for your children. Paul said, “I keep on asking.” We can always know God better than we do. And when you pray, ask the Lord to open the eyes of their heart to let light from heaven come flooding in.

Second, we should pray this for ourselves. "O Lord, help me to know you better. Open my eyes, Lord. Let your light come flooding into my heart. Help me to know all that you have given, all that you have promised, and all that you have provided for me.”