This prayer in Ephesians 1 has been going through my mind today as relates to our church family. We have faced some real challenges over the last month. I anticipate these challenges to continue (and perhaps even be magnified) in coming weeks. However, that doesn’t change the promises of God… the wisdom, the enlightenment, the inheritance, the power He gives us as we depend on Him rather than forging ahead with our own desires, plans, and intentions.

This is my prayer for each member of our church family… a prayer that we can accurately represent Jesus Christ to those around us during this global pandemic fueled by fear and hopelessness. The church is to be a place of hope and peace — a refuge from the turmoil that surrounds us.

May each of you… have your hearts enlightened to KNOW what is the hope He has given us and to KNOW the riches of his glorious inheritance and KNOW the immeasurable greatness of His power toward believers!

I do not cease to give thanks for you,
   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, 
      what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 
      and what is the immeasurable greatness 
       of his power toward us who believe, 
         according to the working of his great might 
            that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead 
            and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
               far above all 
                  rule and 
                  authority and 
                  power and 
                  dominion, 
                     and above every name that is named, 
                     not only in this age 
                        but also in the one to come.
   And he [God the Father] put all things under his [Jesus] feet 
      and gave him as head over all things to the church, 
         which is his body, 
            the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:16–23 (ESV)