“Now abide these three…”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Ephesians 1:15-23 (Forward, p. 73) CEV p. 1222
I don’t know just how many times I have read over this passage, but today something struck me that was entirely new. In verse 15, the apostle Paul singles out two things that he especially prizes in his friends in Ephesus, their faith and their love, their ‘faith in the Lord Jesus’ and their ‘love for God’s people.’ Faith and love: now where have I heard them before? Why, in 1 Corinthians, of course, together with ‘hope’. So, I immediately wondered whether Paul would follow up with this by mentioning ‘hope’ somewhere in the next verses.
And here I was not disappointed. Though he only mentions ‘hope’ by name in just one verse, verse 18, he constantly alludes to the reasons why they might have hope, and undergirds these reasons with a prayer that this might happen:
-that they might receive the Holy Spirit who will make them wise and help them understand what it means to know God (which surely give them hope);
-that light might flood their hearts and help them understand the hope that God has given them when He chose them;
-that they will understand the incredible blessings that will one day be theirs;
-that they will know about the great and might power that God has for all His followers, the same power, by the way, that raised Jesus from the dead.
And here was something else that I had never noticed previously, namely that all their hopes were to be based on facts, on an accurate knowledge and understanding of the situation, on an accurate assessment of who they are in Christ. And that this knowledge or understanding had two elements, one that was interior or subjective and one that was exterior and objective. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit would give them an interior and subjective witness, which would reassure their hearts, while, on the other hand, the historical and objective fact of Jesus’ resurrection would reassure their minds.
So, how very reassuring that would be! Surely, it would give them a much needed, much appreciated peace, or as Paul says elsewhere (Philippians 4:7), it would provide a peace that would guard and control both their hearts and their minds. So, there we have it, faith, hope and love, these three, all working together in our lives and helping us. Amen.
Forward notes: “I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers” (verse 16).
“Growing up, prayer requests were often a one-sided list of things I wanted. Even when I prayed with others, it seldom felt like a conversation with God. And I confess I never remembered whether God answered our prayers or not. The Daily Office changed this for me. Worshiping with a monastic community, I prayed Morning and Evening Prayer every day with the Sisters of St. Mary. The nuns invited our prayers and then took turns reading from their community’s prayer list—adding any needs that had been brought to them by friends or the world.
“I remember once hearing a sermon about a Franciscan friar who was asked, ‘What is the point of religious life?’ The answer: We’re all supposed to say our prayers; and when we fail, nuns and monks are praying our prayers for us too. They watch the news every night. They lift up the world’s greatest needs and desires up to God every single day. That’s the point of prayer: interceding on each other’s behalf, remembering each other before God and praying without ceasing in thanksgiving.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Pray one of the prayers included in this booklet.”