The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Ephesians 1:15-18, “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”

Sometimes strange things happen to us –things we don’t understand at the time and may never understand. Something

like this happened to me last night. It was not a vision; it may have been a dream. But my mind would not grasp the full

significance of the words “knowledge” and “enlightened.” Time is hard to evaluate in dreams, but when I awoke, those two

words were still in my mind, and I knew I had to come to grips with their meaning and share it with you.

As I look at those two words (knowledge and enlightened) in the passage above, they are encompassed by prayer. Paul

was giving thanks for the Ephesian believers, and he prayed that the LORD would give them a spirit of wisdom and an uncovering of the true knowledge of God. Quite honestly, we know very little about God. We believe that God exists, but we are a hundred million miles from uncovering a scintila of His being!

Paul knows the limit of his own knowledge of God, so he prays that our finite knowledge of God might be enlightened. Why are we so devoid of the knowledge of God? Ask yourself that question. My guess is that we spend more time washing our hands every day than we do thinking about God. I’m sure we all spend more time with our cell phones and with television than we do with God’s Word. Paul was unequivically devoted to knowing Christ, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). Now, there’s a standard for each of us!

Yet, there’s a further prize I think I see in Paul’s admonition. He wants all believers to know “the riches of the glory of Christ’s inheritance in the saints.” None of what Paul wants and has prayed for is solely for our benefit. We are Christ’s inheritance! And the glory of that is beyond all comprehension! The more we know of Christ, the more we will become like Christ; and the more be become like Him, the greater will be His glory throughout Eternity! Breathtaking, when you truly think about it.

We love you all and pray for you every single day,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”