Why Paul Prays for Eyes to See What Hearts Often Miss
Even Christians who know the truth can find themselves with blurry spiritual vision. While our faith is not solely dependent on us, we need to be intentional about living from intimacy with Christ, not from the ease of familiar habits or routine.
Every morning, I start off my day by reaching for one thing: my glasses. With a prescription in the -7’s, my world turns into a blur of shadows and fuzz without them. I can see that something is there, especially if I start squinting, but I’m not able to distinguish the outlines of things or the details of them. Faces lessen into shapes and words disappear. Even though I’m looking, I’m not really seeing.
The moment I put on my glasses, everything changes. Details start to materialize and shadowy edges quickly sharpen. As someone who gets excited over itty-bitty details, my blurred world begins to take on meaning, the beauty of it becomes clearer, and my happiness grows as I share these intricacies with others.
I imagine that Paul had a similar hope when penning this prayer. As he beheld the beauty of Christ, his desire was for believers to also share in the vision and joy of what he could see. He didn’t pray for “better behavior,” but for eyes to see; he knew that you could live as if you belong to God but still be spiritually squinting.
Walking Around with Blurry Spiritual Insight
Paul’s prayer for the “eyes of our heart to be enlightened” highlights a dilemma the church struggles with: spiritual nearsightedness. We know and believe the truth of the gospel, but do not truly see it in our lives.
The hope that was preached about on Sunday becomes blurry on Monday as work emails flood in, dreaded visits to the doctor draw near, and the stress of the week causes relationships to fracture. Just like walking without glasses, we bump into fear, anxiety, and hopelessness – not because God is not there, but because our vision of Him has blurred into our background.
This is why Paul highlights three things that he hopes for believers to see clearly:
- The “hope to which he has called you” – having a confident expectation of what
is to come in Christ (e.g., salvation, eternal life, redemption, etc.). - The “riches of his glorious inheritance” – the spiritual treasures that God has
prepared for those who believe in Him. - The “immeasurable greatness of His power” – the boundless power of God that
is now active in us.
Paul knew that once believers began to see these truths, their perspectives would shift and growth would spark. They would begin to live as if they knew Christ, not one driven by self-reliance. Sight and knowledge go hand in hand; our eyes are vital for processing the information around us. We can only know based on what we can see. Spiritual growth doesn’t happen by trying harder – but by seeing clearer.
Keeping Clean Glasses
One thing to note is that Paul's prayer is for the saints – the faithful believers of Christ who already hold the knowledge of who He is. The prayer for this audience reminds us that spiritual sight isn’t a one-time fix. Just as I can move through my home without glasses by relying on habit and familiarity alone, mature Christians can also drift into living in the familiar shadows of their knowledge of Christ.
When this happens, we begin to practice spiritual disciplines out of familiarity rather than fullness, from habit rather than a holy desire. As a result, we miss the beauty of the details and clues of how God wants to transform us, because we’ve become so familiar with living in the shadows. This loss of clarity is often subtle and at times, unnoticed.
Even with glasses on, my vision can still become blurry with fingerprints, smudges, and dust. I need to be intentional about cleaning my glasses if I want my sight to remain pristine. In the same way, Paul’s prayer for the saints reminds us to keep “cleaning our glasses,” so that we don’t lose sight of the beauty God is revealing.
Seeing the Unseen
If you feel your sight has dimmed, I encourage you to reflect on what is smudging your spiritual lenses.
- If you notice fear show up, pray that God would enlighten your eyes to the confident hope you have in Him.
- If you notice insecurities creep in, pray that your eyes would be enlightened to see the richness of the inheritance you have in Him as a child of God.
- If you notice weakness begin to overwhelm you, pray that you would be able to see the immensity of His power at work in you.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 reminds us that what once “no eye has seen, nor ear heard” is a truth that has now been revealed to us through the Spirit. We can now see what was once unseen – the hope, inheritance, and power of God. What a gift that is!
