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Each of us has come here tonight, most likely because of either some personal need for healing, or else to pray for and support someone we know who may be in need of healing and wholeness. I want to affirm and encourage you in that attitude as together we seek God and ask for His healing grace.

I want to encourage you to come to God in a spirit and attitude of trust and confidence that is based not solidly and firmly on God’s word to us. And the words I have chosen are those we have just heard

which are able to encourage and speak to us tonight in our situation and need. I will refer in particular to the reading from Pauls letter to the Ephesians., chapter 1, verses 15 -21.

I am reading from the New Revised Standard Version, so the words may read a little different from yours if you are using a different translation. Lets look at Ephesians 1:15.

He says “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints , and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.” These words are a reminder that tonight we are not alone either! There are others praying for us, others praying for you tonight, just like Paul prayed for the Xns at Ephesus., though they didn’t realize it. Others are praying for you ; WE are praying for you tonight.

Paul then prays that his readers may come to know three facts about God. And these same three important facts will help us as we come to God for His healing.

1/ - in verse 18 Paul prays that you may know what is the Hope to which God has called you.

A lot of the time I have difficulty with this word hope. Many people compare it or even equate it to “wishful thinking”, but as I researched this word again, I was reminded that hope is that certainty that looks to the future with confidence because God is in control, even when everything else may seem to be falling apart.  Just recently I finished reading the autobiography of Selwyn Hughes, written just a couple of years ago, and the author of the daily Bible Reading notes, “Everyday with Jesus.” Selwyn died earlier this year, but in the later years of his life he suffered a great deal of personal sorrow and bereavement as his wife died of cancer, his older son died in an accident, and his younger son committed suicide. People often asked him how he coped with such sorrow and sadness, and in his book he wrote, “I have a little plaque in my home which someone gave me many years ago with just one word inscribed on it – Jesus.”  He wrote: “During those times when I was in so much pain that I couldn’t pray I would look at the plaque and quietly say the word – Jesus. In such moments God would come incredibly close to me, easing the hurt in my soul. When words fail us there is one word that never fails – Jesus.”   That one word – Jesus – brought Hope to his soul; a reminder that there is yet more, and that there is a future. God has a future for you too, and for me, even though sometimes, or even at this present moment, we may not see very far. God has called us to hold fast to this Hope.   That Hope gives us confidence in God.

2/ The Second important fact Paul wants us to know , ( still in verse 18 ) is  - “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.” I think Paul is asking his readers here to reflect for a moment on all the “riches” which they “inherit” from God. Notice we don’t earn these! They are our inheritance, they are gifted to us because of our relationship with the Father. Most of these riches may be intangible, but they are real, aren’t they? The riches of knowing God as our Father, of having the privilege of being in a living and loving relationship with him; of having his spirit at work in us; of having the gift of eternal life; of being able to come openly and freely into his presence; of being able to make our requests known to Him; of knowing that He hears us when we pray; of knowing that He will never leave us or dessert us… and so many more besides. These are the amazing riches which we inherit as children of God. When we think of all these, doesn’t it make us want to come to Him and trust Him even more – no matter what our need is? Tonight we can do that as we come to God and ask for His healing presence in our lives, and in those we love.

The Hope to which God has called us; the riches of our inheritance are two of the amazing truths God wants us to know.

The third truth in verse 18 -  3/ - is the knowledge of “the immeasureable greatness of his power for us who believe.” 

So often we limit God. We think a situation is beyond his reach, or outside of his ability. I do that sometimes!

This verse reminds me to look again and think again about God’s almighty power. – and not only his almighty power, but note the end of the verse – “for US who believe”. As I was reading my “Everyday with Jesus “ notes the other day it quoted the passage from Mark 13, which describes Jesus Second coming. The commentary said “Troubled times and sickness can shrink our vision of God. The things that overwhelm us can appear to tower over God – He’s not big enough to cope! But as Jesus continues to talk about the turbulence of the end times, He reminds us that He is bigger than the biggest things we can contemplate. The sun, moon and stars were symbols of power in the ancient world; yet here, using poetic language, the light of that blazing orb called the sun turns to shade;  moonlight becomes a memory and even the stars take a dive from their solid positions in the sky. This is symbolic language so we are not always to take it literally. But the real point is that the Son of Man is painted as the one who comes surfing on the clouds, “with great power and glory” bigger, stronger, greater than them all, far above ‘all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given.”

Our view of the immeasurable greatness of God’s power may well have been shrunk by life’s problems. Ask God to renew your vision of Him as He is.

That immeasurable greatness of God’s power is also available for us tonight as we come to Him and ask in simple faith and trust for His healing presence and power.  Come with faith and trust , knowing the hope to which you have been called; the riches of his glorious inheritance; and the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.