Transformed in Christ: Prayer for Masterful Living (Ephesians - Part 11)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, It is my humbling joy to share with you once again, to open up the richness of His Word together. I want us to take a deeper journey into the magnificent truths Pastor Sam Merigala shared in his sermon, "Transformed in Christ: Prayer for Masterful Living". This is not a message to be heard once and set aside; it is a wellspring of truth to which we must return again and again, allowing its living water to refresh, reshape, and renew our souls. Let us, with hearts of reverence and minds attentive to the Spirit, delve into the vast ocean of God's grace revealed in this teaching.

The Grand Blueprint: God's Will, God's Possession, God's Glory

Pastor Merigala begins his sermon not with us, but with God. This is the fundamental reorientation that the Gospel brings into our lives. Before we can understand ourselves, our purpose, or our prayers, we must first be captivated by the majesty of God's sovereign plan. He frames this with two foundational questions that every believer must grapple with: "How did we become God's people?" and "Why did He make us His people?".

The answer to the "how" is breathtaking in its simplicity and profound in its implications: we became His people "according to the good pleasure of His will". Think on that for a moment. Your place in the family of God is not a cosmic accident, not a result of your own cleverness or moral striving. It is the deliberate, joyful, and sovereign choice of the Almighty God. Before the foundations of the world were laid, His will was set upon you. You are His possession, His treasured heritage. In a world that screams for self-determination and autonomy, this truth brings a liberating dependence. We do not belong to ourselves; we are God's possession, and our lives depend entirely on His perfect will.

This leads directly to the "why." If the origin of our salvation is His will, what is its ultimate destination? Pastor Merigala makes it abundantly clear: we were made His people "for the praise of the glory of His grace". This is the magnificent, God-centered purpose of our existence. Everything in the Christian life—every blessing, every trial, every act of obedience—is designed to flow back to its source in a river of praise. Fallen humanity is tragically trapped in a self-referential loop; it is a humanity imprisoned in its own little ego, driven by an almost boundless confidence in its own will and an insatiable appetite for its own glory. But the Gospel, as Pastor Merigala so powerfully states, has begun to turn us "inside out". We are part of a new society with new values, where the currency is not self-promotion but God-glorification.

Pastor Merigala draws our attention to the deliberate, threefold repetition of this glorious theme in the Apostle Paul's writing.

1. God destined us to be His children "to the praise of his glorious grace".
2. He made us His heritage and appointed us to live "for the praise of his glory".
3. And one day, He will finally redeem His people who are His possession, "to the praise of his glory".

This isn't mere repetition; it's a divine crescendo! From our election in eternity past to our daily lives in the present, and onward to our final redemption in the future, the singular, unifying purpose is the magnification of God's glory. To live for His glory, as Pastor Merigala unpacks, is a twofold action: it is to worship Him personally with our words and our deeds, and it is to live in such a way that our very lives become a signpost, pointing a watching world to the gracious God He is, compelling them to praise Him too. Our salvation begins in His will and culminates in His glory. This is the grand and beautiful scope of the blessings we have received in Christ. We were made by God, for God, and our hearts will only find their true and lasting satisfaction when we join the heavenly chorus in praising Him.

The Indispensable Union of Praise and Prayer

Having laid this glorious foundation of what God has done, Pastor Merigala masterfully transitions from a doxology of praise to an intercession of prayer. This is not an abrupt shift but a divinely inspired model for a healthy and vibrant spiritual life. He observes a common imbalance that plagues many believers, causing them to lose their spiritual equilibrium.

On one side, there are sincere Christians who seem to be in a constant state of petition, always praying for new spiritual blessings. They are seemingly unaware or have forgotten the staggering reality that in Christ, God has already blessed them with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Their prayers, though well-intentioned, can betray a spiritual poverty mentality, as if they are trying to coax blessings from a reluctant God.

On the other side are believers who so strongly emphasize the truth that everything is already theirs in Christ that they fall into a state of spiritual complacency. They rightly affirm their position in Christ but lack a holy appetite to know and experience those privileges more deeply. Their praise can become detached from a desperate longing for more of God.

Pastor Merigala, following the Apostle Paul's example in Ephesians 1, shows us the path to spiritual balance. We must keep Christian praise and Christian prayer bound together. These two are not opposing forces but two wings of the same bird, both necessary for spiritual flight. We must constantly be praising God that in Christ, all spiritual blessings are ours, acknowledging the completed work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. At the same time, we must be relentlessly praying that He will open our eyes to know, grasp, and experience the fullness of what He has already so lavishly given us. It is a holy rhythm of benediction and petition, of celebrating our inheritance and pleading for the sight to behold its splendor.

This entire dynamic, Pastor Merigala notes, is profoundly Trinitarian. The prayer of praise (the benediction) is addressed to "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," who has blessed us "in Christ" with "spiritual" blessings from the Spirit. Likewise, the prayer of petition (the intercession) is addressed to "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ," who accomplished His mighty power "in Christ," and who gives us a "spirit of wisdom and of revelation". Because the triune God has approached us in this way—the Father through the Son and by the Spirit—we are then enabled to approach Him in the same manner: to the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit. This beautiful symmetry shows that our prayer life is a direct response to God's saving action.

The Prayer for Enlightening the Eyes of the Heart

Having established the why and the how of prayer, Pastor Merigala directs us to the specific content of Paul's intercession. What does this prayer, born from such profound praise, actually ask for? The request is not for something new, not for a "second blessing" that we lack. Rather, the essence of the prayer is that we might truly know and appreciate the immeasurable blessing we have already received.

Paul prays "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". Let us carefully unpack this Spirit-inspired request.

The ultimate goal is knowledge of Him. This is not the cold, detached knowledge of facts and figures. Pastor Merigala clarifies that the knowledge Paul prays for is more Hebrew than Greek in its concept; it is a knowledge born of intimate experience, not just intellectual understanding. It is the personal, relational knowledge of God Himself. This is the pinnacle of all human striving. As Pastor Merigala quotes Adolphe Monod, "Philosophy taking man for its centre says know thyself; only the inspired word which proceeds from God has been able to say know God".

How do we attain such knowledge? It is impossible without divine revelation. That is why Paul prays for a "spirit of wisdom and of revelation". Pastor Merigala is careful to explain that this is not a prayer for believers to receive the Holy Spirit for the first time, for they have already been sealed with Him. Instead, this is a prayer for the Holy Spirit's ongoing, active ministry of illumination. Illumination is the divine act whereby God opens our spiritual eyes to understand the truth He has already revealed in Scripture. The Bible is God's inspired mind, but as Pastor Merigala vividly puts it, we need "Holy Spirit glasses" to understand it accurately and deeply. Without the Spirit's help, our hearts remain unenlightened.

The Scriptures themselves testify to this necessity. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus had to open the disciples' minds so they could finally understand the Scriptures that spoke of Him. Lydia's heart had to be opened by the Lord to respond to Paul's message. The psalmist, in his deep love for God's law, repeatedly pleads, "Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wonderful things from Your instruction". This is the prayer of every humble believer.

Why, then, do we so often neglect to pray for this divine illumination? Pastor Merigala points directly to the root of the problem: our pride. We are constantly tempted toward self-sufficiency, an inflated view of our own intellectual and spiritual capabilities. The very first step to becoming a true student of God's Word is to cultivate a heart of profound humility—a heart that cries out, "Please, God, give me understanding".

This humility must be paired with a high view of God. Paul doesn't pray to a distant, feeble deity. He addresses "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory". This title is packed with meaning. He is the "glorious Father". This is the God whose glory appeared to Moses at Sinai, the God of infinite power and majesty. Paul often ties God's glory to His power. By praying to the Father of glory, Paul expresses unshakeable confidence that the God who is the very source of all glory and power is perfectly capable of giving His people the spiritual resources they need. The God who spoke and said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the same God who can shine in our hearts to give us "the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ". When we pray, we are not praying to a weak god, but to the omnipotent, glorious Father who is both intimately near and transcendentally powerful.

The ultimate goal is to know God better

My dear friends, let us bring this to a sharp focus. What is the supreme purpose of having the eyes of our hearts enlightened? Pastor Merigala states it with a clarity that should echo in our souls: it is so that we might know God better. This may seem elementary, but as he rightly asks, is anything more important?. The entire trajectory of the Christian life, from its first breath to its final consummation, is about knowing God.

• The Beginning of our faith: Jesus Himself defined eternal life not as a quantity of years, but as a quality of relationship: "This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ".
• The Middle of our journey: The great ambition of the Apostle Paul, the driving force of his ministry, was simply this: "My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection".
• The End of our race: Our ultimate hope, the glorious vision that pulls us forward, is that one day "we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is". The Christian life is a progressive journey toward that final, perfect vision of God—the visio dei (Latin for "the vision of God").

A deeper, more intimate knowledge of God is not an abstract theological pursuit; it has profound, practical consequences. Pastor Merigala, referencing the great J.I. Packer, lists four characteristics of those who truly know their God: they possess great energy for God, great thoughts of God, great boldness for God, and great contentment in God. Do you desire more energy in your service, more depth in your worship, more courage in your witness, and more peace in your soul? The path to these is a deeper, more personal knowledge of God Himself.

Therefore, beloved, let us take these truths and weave them into the fabric of our prayer lives. Let us begin, as Paul did, with exuberant praise to the triune God: God the Father who chose us, God the Son who redeemed us, and God the Spirit who has sealed and assured us. Let us celebrate the glorious reality that He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

And from that high peak of praise, let us descend into the valley of humble petition. Let us cry out to our glorious Father, asking Him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Let us plead with Him to give us the Spirit's illumination, to open the eyes of our hearts. May He strip away the scales of pride and self-sufficiency that blind us. May He turn on the lights in our hearts so we can see Him in His majesty, appreciate the glorious hope to which He has called us, and comprehend the immeasurable riches of His inheritance in us.

May our lives, transformed by this ever-increasing knowledge of God, become a living testimony to His grace, so that all we are and all we do returns to Him in a symphony of praise, for the glory of His grace.

Amen and Amen.