“18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength.”
I like to read to my children, but occasionally my children stop me mid-sentence to ask me what a new word means. Effervescent, fun and bubbly! Perilous, dangerous or fear inducing. Inundated, flustered or overwhelmed. But occasionally I get a word, that I feel I know, that I know I know, but I just can’t work out how to describe it! I think the last word that stumped me in that manor was, ‘egregious’. I know what it means, but to describe it to my children, the words didn’t seem to materialise.
How would you describe the word hope if your child interrupted story time!?
The writer of Ephesians prays that the readers would ‘know the hope to which he has called you.’ At some point I may have described it as a longing for something to come, and if I’m honest maybe associated with a warm and fuzzy feeling that things will be ok. Naively I fear we bring that mentality to our faith. On the grand scale we hope for a future glory, on the more personal side we hope for God’s hand at work in our lives. But if we centre hope to something we do, or feel, or desire, we rob it of the ‘power.’
The hope that we have been called to is based in the future ‘glorious inheritance,’ it is a promise of the life that we will live with no barrier between our creator and His ‘holy people.’ But it is not warm and fluffy!
His hope is ‘his incomparably great power for us who believe.’ It is not a feeling, but a mighty and strengthening power that is to impact our lives here and now. It is not something to keep in our minds eye, to look ahead to keep us going in the here and now, like a child waiting for Christmas. Instead His hope, the promised inheritance, is the power by which we are to live and work today.
***
Application:
How do I allow hope to power me now, not just help me to hang on?
Prayer:
Father God, whatever my present looks like I choose to exist in the hope filled power of what is to come. Enable me to impact the world today, strengthened by my promised inheritance. Amen.