15 Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, 16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.
Spiritual Wisdom
Paul tells the Ephesians that he has been praying for them. His prayers have focused specifically on two things. We’ll look at one today and the other tomorrow.
His first focus of prayer is that the Ephesians will have spiritual wisdom and insight. I think his choice of words here is significant. Do you notice he’s not praying for knowledge? You see, I believe there is a huge difference between knowledge and wisdom. And yet, for many, it is the pursuit of knowledge that drives them.
Knowledge is the acquiring of facts. You might call it “book smarts.” I have met some pretty stupid people who have a lot of knowledge. They can quote from a whole bunch of books. They can offer you incredible facts on a variety of subjects. And yet, none of it is actually applicable to their daily life.
Wisdom is when you apply knowledge to your experience. It’s when you take a fact, and then, because of your experiences, you apply that fact to how you live out your daily life. Wisdom comes out of taking the theoretical and making it practical.
But notice that Paul doesn’t pray that the Ephesians will simply gain any kind of wisdom. He’s very specific. He’s praying that they will gain spiritual wisdom. He doesn’t want them to simply gain biblical doctrine. He doesn’t want them to just quote all the words of Jesus and have a decent grasp on Christ’s teachings. No. He is praying for more than spiritual knowledge. He’s praying that they will take all that they’ve learned and apply it to how they live out their daily life.
You see, you can have a lot of knowledge about the power of the Holy Spirit. You can read these Oil Changes each day and gain more knowledge on various books of the Bible. Or, you can go further. You can take what you learn about God in these daily posts and ask God how you can apply them to your day to day life. How can you take this knowledge and allow it to become wisdom?
That is a great prayer.
So, let me pray it today. Lord, I’m not satisfied in simply knowing all about you. I don’t want to simply build a strong understanding of doctrine. I want to apply all this truth to my life. Rather than simply knowing that the Holy Spirit can empower me to live for you, I want to experience his power. I want my knowledge to be transformed into spiritual wisdom. And yet, it’s impossible without you doing it. So, give me spiritual wisdom. Amen.
Until tomorrow.
