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. Eph. 1:18
Heavenly Father, if a sheriff rang my doorbell this morning with a subpoena, it’d make me nervous. But today, like every day, the Gospel is ringing the doorbell of our hearts, subpoenaing us to hope. Hallelujah!
Thank you for making hope a heavenly calling—not a “robot call” or an easily deleted email. We wouldn’t think of ignoring a summons from the sheriff; we’d be crazy to ignore a summons from you.
So open the eyes of our hearts on this May Monday, Father. Hope has seemed a bit blurry through the virus-fog. Help us see Jesus a bit more, every good thing we have in him; and the New Creation world he is actively making of this old broken one.
Paul saw these Gospel-realities clearly, as he prayed this prayer from a Roman imprisonment, in a culture filled with a pandemic of crazy, sin, and hopelessness. Quite honestly, compared to Paul’s, our situation is just not all that whine-worthy and pout-able.
So free us from fixing our gaze on circumstances we can’t control, people we’re not called to fix, and a future you claim as your domain and delight.
Indeed, where there’s been heart-astigmatism and spiritual-myopia of late, grant us enlightenment and better vision. Throw the curtains all the way open; lift all the clouds; do more laser surgery on the eyes of our hearts, Father. Make patently clear what you want us to see.
May this be a week of hope expressing itself in peace, and faith expressing itself in love. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ tender and triumphant name.