Prayer & Fasting: The Revelation of Astounding Truth

3/31/2019

Each of us live our life in the midst of a host of constantly changing circumstances. Think about just the smallness of your world as a child and how much more pain, suffering, and trials you're aware of now that you're an adult. For many, the natural inclination is to be somewhat reactionary in our prayer life, reacting to circumstances. Yet Paul casts a different vision for our potential prayers. Read Ephesians 1:15-23 together.

What are your first impressions of what Paul says in this passage. Does this sound like a prayer to you? In other words, do you feel this reads naturally like a prayer? Why or why not?
It seems like Paul is less interested in directing his prayers toward their particular circumstances and more to what they actually need in order to give them perspective in the midst of their circumstances.
Read verses 16-19.
Paul asks that God would give them certain things so they would know certain things. Look at the verses and map this out together. What do you need in order to know what you have? Why do you need to to be given these particular things?

What are the implications of what we have? “...the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,”

Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians in 1:1 by calling the Christians in Ephesus the saints and the faithful. This is what it looks like in the greek, “τοῖς ἁγίοις τοῖς οὖσιν [ἐν Ἐφέσῳ] καὶ πιστοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ” literally translated, this says, “those who are holy in Ephesus and those who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Again in verse 18 Paul says something about the saints. The Greek here is the same as verse 1, “τοῖς ἁγίοις” those who are holy, or the Holy ones. If there’s a glorious inheritance for us, how do you know if you're holy enough to receive it? What is it that qualifies someone for this? (This is not a perfect church… keep in mind that Jesus personally calls out the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:1-7 for legalism),
Perhaps it would help to clarify what exactly this inheritance is! Together, think through these three elements…
1. What is the hope to which he has called you?
2. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance (as in, He has an inheritance which he is giving away)?
3. What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe?
What difference do these three things make in your life? What difference do they make in the life of the church? What difference do they make in the world?
How do verses 20-23 bolster your confidence in God to make good on his promises? What do these verses do for your hope personally, and for the church?
Take some time to pray for each other, moving deeper than circumstance and into the foundational types of requests which Paul outlines in this passage.