Hope, Riches, and Power

Wow, here are three things that everybody wants -- hope, riches, and power. And Paul says that we have inherited all three! However, we don't necessarily know it or remember it, and thus his prayer:

18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Paul wants us to know the hope God has called us to. He's already talked about this hope -- this sure hope of redemption for all who are included in Christ.

Paul wants us to know the riches of God's inheritance. I guess that inheritance is our part in God's future kingdom, in which all things are brought together in worship and praise of him 'to the praise of His glory'. But there are probably present aspects of this inheritance as well that should be manifesting themselves in our lives.

Paul wants us to know God's power, and he elaborates on this power at great length. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the power he wants us to know now.

But what about:

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

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Does Paul dare, by his prayer, to contradict these two sayings that I have agreed with many times? Are our hope, inheritance, and power so sure that we can ignore these tentative and cautious ideas that say we must have it IN HAND to be sure of it? I think Paul would say yes in this instance, and in this instance only. Our inheritance from God is sure, so sure that we SHOULD live as though it has 'hatched' and is 'in hand', despite the fact that there is much future fulfillment still to come. That is what Paul means when he prays that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened so that we might know the hope, etc.

There is nothing else so sure that we should depend on it in this way -- not our jobs, our bank accounts, our family or friends or spouse, our health, our abilities. And so these sayings may still be good for everyday life in this world. However, if we apply them to our hope in God, it makes us live in a lesser type of faith than God wants. It makes us hold back our confidence and boldness with a 'wait and see' attitude toward God.

Paul is not praying that we 'wait and see' -- he is praying that we 'know and act': know who we are and act accordingly.