Seeing God in the New Year (Ephesians 1.15-23)

Happy New Year, everyone!

I don't know if you received any surprise gifts for Christmas.

My wife was going to get me a tea pot. In fact, she accidentally sent a message to a family WhatsApp group I’m in too saying that she was going to buy that.

But I still got a surprise, because in the end she decided not to buy me anything!

Sometimes there are gifts that change our lives.

Like, for example, these glasses for colour-blind people that finally allow them to see colours better.

See the impact on this young colour-blind man in this video.

Moving... but question: through what glasses do we see the year 2026?

Some may be motivated by the start of a new year.

It's a new beginning, you have new projects. A new job, perhaps a wedding, perhaps a baby on the way.

Your outlook is tinged with optimism.

For others, it's different. There's a kind of dark cloud. Perhaps because of trials you're going through or anticipating. Your outlook on the coming year is tinged with anxiety or pessimism.

Through what glasses do we see the year 2026 unfolding?

This is not a trivial question, because how we view the world and ourselves determines how we live.
We all know Edith Piaf's famous song:

When he takes me in his arms

He whispers softly to me

I see life through rose-coloured glasses

And seeing life through rose-coloured glasses, she sings:

A great happiness takes its place

Troubles and sorrows fade away

Happy, happy to the point of death

Our outlook on life determines how we live.

Through what lens do we see the year 2026 unfolding?

We wanted to begin this new year by talking about prayer and meditating in particular on a prayer that concerns... our outlook on life.
It is a prayer from the Apostle Paul for the Christians of the city of Ephesus, who too could be tempted to adopt an anxious and fearful view of the world.

Fear and anxiety weighed heavily on all the inhabitants of Ephesus in the first century.

It was a city known for its practice of magic, through which people sought to obtain prosperity and protect themselves from demons.

It was also home to one of the seven wonders of the world, the immense temple of Artemis, goddess of fertility, who was worshipped to ensure her favour.

We read in the book of Acts that when people began to believe in Jesus and abandon Artemis, a riot broke out. If you angered the goddess, you put yourself in danger.

And the Christians who had turned their backs on all her magical practices and on Artemis, but who still saw them before their eyes every day, must have wondered if they had lost all protection against the forces of evil.

It must be the same today for Christians in regions where other religions dominate. Every day they are confronted with temples, mosques and crowds of people who believe that those who abandon their religion bring misfortune upon society.

In their place, I too would be tempted to look around me and feel that the world is against me!

What glasses are we wearing this year?

I'm not talking about Ray Bans or EnChroma glasses for colour-blind people.

This morning's passage invites us to ask God for a new pair of spiritual glasses.

To see life in its true colours.

So that it transforms the way we live this year.

Ephesians 1:15-23 – let's read it again together:

That is why I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus [and your love] for all the saints, never cease to give thanks for you as I mention you in my prayers.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him. I pray that he may enlighten the eyes of your heart so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power, which he has worked effectively through the power of his strength towards us who believe.

He demonstrated this power in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above every rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in this age but also in the one to come. He put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Approaching a new year with joy and confidence does not begin with resolutions to think more positively and have more self-confidence.

According to this text, it begins by asking for...

1. “Glasses” to see God

This is our first point.

The key to a changed outlook on life is first to ask God for help in knowing Him more deeply.

Verse 17

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him.

The Ephesians had every reason to feel fearful, anxious, powerless, small, and perhaps even forsaken.

Paul says they need to know God better.

I speak for myself. I worry easily about things. Perhaps especially at turning points like the beginning of a new year.

I think about the challenges ahead, I get anxious, and my first instinct is to think about how to overcome them.

Paul prays for more knowledge of God.

Why? Is it just an easy answer?

'Whatever your worries, you need to know God better' – is that just the 'Christianly correct' answer?

No, to help the Ephesians change their perspective despite a very anxiety-provoking context, more knowledge of God was exactly what they needed.

Now, I know that when we say someone sees life through rose-tinted glasses, we imply that they are a little naive.

But why does Edith Piaf see life through rose-tinted glasses?

Because she is in love!

She feels cherished and secure, and that colours her whole outlook.

Perhaps you have experienced the same thing!

You fall in love, and the more you get to know the person, the more you fall in love and the more your outlook on life is flooded with light.

It doesn't have to be romantic love. Some friendships, as they deepen, have a similar effect. You feel secure.

Our relationships colour our outlook on life, except that in this case, the one we need to get to know better is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.

Why call him the Father of glory? Paul chooses his words carefully.

Glory in the Bible refers first and foremost to the manifest presence of God. It is when we see that he is there with us!

Think of Mount Sinai. The glory of God descends among the people. He comes to dwell in relationship with them.

Glory also refers to God's splendour. Literally, it is his weight! It shows that with God, we are dealing with something heavy!

When God saves the Israelites by parting the Red Sea, he reveals... his glory! He shows that he is the one and only God who fights for his people.

Then, when the people sin by making an idol, Moses wants to know how to prevent God from leaving them, and he says to God: show me your glory! And God responds by saying that what makes up his glory, his supreme splendour, is his love and forgiveness.

When the Israelites learn this, when they perceive his glory, their hearts are changed, they stop complaining and they give themselves to him to serve him.

Their outlook is transformed!

But Paul knows that with Jesus, this glory took human form, came to dwell among us to show us God's love and forgiveness.

The Father of glory is also the God of our Lord Jesus Christ!

So, in asking that the "Father of glory give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him," the apostle Paul prays that we may see more clearly the presence and splendour of God.

It is a prayer that our eyes may be filled and transformed by the reality that the God of the universe, the one and only creator of heaven and earth, the God of Jesus Christ who fights for his people... is with us and is for us!

It is more than just storing up information about God. It includes that. We need to know who we are dealing with. But it goes further than that.

Knowing someone in the Bible means having a close and intimate relationship.

When a man knows a woman, it refers to sexual intercourse.

So Paul is praying that our relationship with God will deepen, be more informed by truth, more intimate, and characterised by more trust, more gratitude, more wonder, more love.

He wants us to see God, to fall more in love with him, so to speak, so that it colours our view of life.

A small analogy would be the family.

It often strikes me that children who know that their parents love and encourage them, and for whom that love is self-evident, have an impressive stability and security.

They have a perspective on life shaped by their parents' love.

Sigmund Freud, who said that we imagined God to be the father we would have liked to have, is wrong.

But where there is some truth in what he says is that just as our relationship with our parents shapes our outlook on life, so does our relationship with God.

Not everyone has had a close relationship with their parents, but God offers us an even more real and perfect one!

So the key to a changed outlook is first to ask for a more accurate vision and a deeper relationship with our Father.

It is not natural for us to know God in this way.

Many things distort our view, and Paul knows this because he asks God to give us "a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him."

In other words, if we don't feel like we appreciate our relationship with God for what it's worth, welcome to the club!

It's not natural for us.

But the first thing to do to correct this is not to start a Bible reading plan or decide to be more diligent in our community group, even though these would be very good things to do.

The first thing to do is to pray... as Paul does.

Ask God to give us new glasses.

How much time do we spend praying for this?

It is a request that God is happy to grant, and he gives us this passage to tell us to do so... because it really is the key to everything.

The problem with comparing life to rose-tinted glasses is that if you are not cynical, you will accuse those who see life through rose-tinted glasses of lacking realism. 'At some point, harsh reality will catch up with you'.

The Bible is not lacking in realism!

What Paul prays for is precisely that the ultimate reality – God and the fact that we belong to him, if we are Christians – shapes our view of everything else.

At the beginning of 2026, it all starts here!

When we have a correct view of God, everything else falls into place!

Knowing how to approach challenges... it starts with glasses that see God.

Fighting sin... begins with glasses that see God.

Facing our worries...

Our motivation to serve, read the Bible, evangelise, or love our family... it all starts with asking for these glasses that see God!

Are we praying for this?

Because the better we know someone, the more we begin to share their perspective.

Perhaps you have noticed this.

At the beginning of a relationship, we are polite and reserved.

The deeper it gets, the better we see how the other person sees things and, in particular, how they see us!

I have a much better idea of how Anne-Sophie sees things and how she sees me today than I did before we got married!

That's why asking for glasses to see God is also asking for...

2. “Glasses” to see how God sees us.

This is our second point. Knowing God better allows us to see how God sees us.

This week, I looked at Fnac's bestsellers in the personal development category.

A common theme in these books is freeing yourself from the gaze of others.

If you want to be free and confident, stop worrying about what others think of you.

But according to this passage, there is someone else whose opinion we need to share.

God.

Paul prays that by knowing God better, we will come to share his perspective on three things

• Where we are going

• Who we are

• How to be sure

First...

• Where we are going

Verse 18

I pray that he will enlighten the eyes of your heart so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you

In The Lord of the Rings, the four hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin meet a character they know as Strider.

At first they mistrust him, but then they discover that he is on their side and that Strider is actually called Aragorn and is the heir to a great kingdom where he will one day reign and which he will share with them.

As they get to know him, their eyes are opened to see how glorious their future is.

Paul prays that as we get to know God better, our eyes will also be opened to the future he will share with us.

Hope is the life that God has in store for us in the new creation he is preparing.

Sometimes we talk about going to heaven.

But if we imagine that we will spend eternity sitting in the clouds, dressed in white and playing the harp, we are mistaken.

Ephesians says that we are waiting for Jesus to reunite heaven and earth.

A physical earth, without all that spoils this one, where Jesus reigns visibly.

Paul wants us to understand that this is where we are headed!

Why?

Because the way we see our future determines the way we live our present.

Lucie's French teacher asked the pupils to watch a documentary called "2050, le monde d'après" (2050, the world after), which depicted a catastrophic scenario of how the climate in France will change in the coming years.

I'm not qualified to comment on the content. I simply thought that if we believe our ultimate destination is inevitable disaster, it could cause anxiety and paralysis in the present.

On a smaller scale, perhaps we look at the challenges of this new year—finding a job, finding a place to live, succeeding in our studies—and we already feel overcome with worry.

Paul prays that we will see that our ultimate destination is not disaster. It is heaven on earth.

That doesn't mean things can't go wrong before then. It means that our ultimate horizon is bright, and it is guaranteed by Jesus. There is no doubt about it.

I recently heard about a Christian man who had just learned he had cancer.

His response: the best is yet to come!

His eyes were open to the hope that comes with his calling!

OK, some might say, but that's a long way off!

I need reassurance right now!

That is why Paul also prays that we may share God's perspective on...

• Who we are

Verse 18 again

I pray that he will enlighten the eyes of your heart so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints

What does it mean to be part of the glorious inheritance among the saints?

The word "inheritance" could give the impression that we are always talking about what God has in store for the future.

In that case, he is still talking about our hope.

But when we read this verse more carefully, we get the impression that it is saying something else.

Look again. To whom does the inheritance belong?

It is his glorious inheritance. It belongs to God.

It is among the saints: it is made up of Christians.

And Paul wants us to know how rich this inheritance is – how valuable it is.

In other words, he wants us to see that we are... God's precious and glorious inheritance!

We are His treasure!

In the Old Testament, Israel is described as God's inheritance.

With Jesus, it is the Christian church. Us.

Paul wants us to see how valuable we are to God.

The way we measure our value is so crucial.

When I was a teenager, I played a lot of music. Some teachers would say, 'You are only as good as your last performance'.

What does that produce?

Insecurity.

Some people are constantly overwhelmed by the feeling that they are never good enough.

Am I where I should be compared to others my age, etc.?

It becomes overwhelming.

Paul prays that we see ourselves as God sees us.

This is beautifully explained in the children's book, "You Are Precious".

In this story, little wooden men called Vémiches spend their time sticking stickers on each other.

The most beautiful and talented ones receive gold stars. The others receive grey circles.

Punchinello is very sad and convinced that he is a bad vémiche because he only has circles.

But one day he meets a vémiche who doesn't have any stickers sticking to her because she spends time with their sculptor, Eli.

So Punchinello goes to meet Eli. Eli puts his hands on his shoulders and says, "You are mine. That's why you are valuable to me." From then on, the stickers placed on him by others begin to fall to the ground.

He is freed from the gaze of the other vémiches.

Eyes open to who we are.

Ah, but how do I know I won't walk away and lose all this?

We are weak! And life is difficult!

Thirdly...

• How can we be sure?

Verse 19
"I pray that he will enlighten the eyes of your heart so that you may know ... what is the infinite greatness of his power, which is effectively manifested by the power of his strength towards us who believe."

What we believe about power also determines many things: what we fear, how we live, whom we trust, etc.

The Ephesians were in danger of believing that power belonged to Artemis or to evil spiritual powers or to the crowds who saw the church in Ephesus as a threat to society.

Today, we may believe that power belongs to the strong men of this world, or to tech bosses, or perhaps just to the blind forces of chance.

Even if we believe that power belongs to God, our view may be tinged with the suspicion that God will use it against us.

Paul prays that as we come to know God better, our eyes will be opened to see the extent of his power—his infinite greatness—and that it serves our good! It is effectively manifested through the power of his strength towards us who believe.

We can be sure of where we are going and that God will not lose his glorious inheritance along the way, because he deploys the infinite greatness of his power on our behalf!

During the holidays, I went ice skating with my 5-year-old nephew.

He was completely relaxed the whole time, skating along without a care in the world, because my brother was standing behind him to hold him up and, above all, because he was also holding on to a big plastic penguin that prevented him from falling.

In our case, it is not a plastic penguin that keeps us standing. It is the infinite greatness of God's power!

So, be careful. Paul is not talking about a power that can potentially help us stand.

It's not that when we feel a little weak, we can pick up the phone and ask God to throw in a little more power.

No, Paul prays that we will see the power that is already at work for our good.

Verse 20

He displayed this power in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above every rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. He put everything under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The power that works in our favour today in 2026 is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and placed him at the head of the universe, from where he rules over all things for the good of his people, who are also his body. X 2

What does a head do for a body?

Our head takes care of our body, seeks its good, and nourishes it.

Perhaps in recent weeks, our head has nourished our body a lot! Perhaps a little too much!

God has placed Jesus at the head of the universe so that he may direct everything for the eternal good of his body!

If you are like me, believing that God is constantly and powerfully working for our good is the hardest thing to believe.

Our hope, our value, we might say, okay...

Believing that God acts in everything for our good... our physical eyes often tell us otherwise!

But the reality is that the world is not ruled by impersonal, random or hostile forces.

It is ruled by Jesus!

God must impress this upon us!

The One who rules the universe, who tells the galaxies which way to turn, rules the universe for the eternal good of His church; us, if we are Christians!

Amazing!

That is why Paul does not pray for God to give us more power.

He prays that as we contemplate Jesus, risen and reigning, the eyes of our hearts will be opened to the power already at work for our eternal good.

Some people are interested in what is known as spiritual warfare or spiritual combat.

This is the idea of doing things to prevent the forces of evil from harming us.

Ephesians is the book to explore if you have questions about this.

But it is striking that in a city as marked by magic and occultism as Ephesus, Paul does not ask God to protect Christians!

He asks that they see spiritual reality as it is! Jesus, risen and reigning, for our good!

He asks that we have glasses to see how God sees us!

How do we see the year 2026 unfolding?

Some may have high expectations for this year. Beautiful things await them.

Perhaps not everyone. It is possible that some feel more pessimistic.

Our society asks: what do I need to do to feel better?

Should I exercise more or eat healthier? Sure, why not!

But the Bible asks: what glasses are you wearing?

God's glasses... or other ones?

There is a world of colour and beauty to discover when we put on these glasses.

Not that nothing difficult will happen to us. But when we look through God's glasses, everything is put into perspective and the vision they offer is ultimately very, very good because the first thing we see through them is that God is very, very good.

What glasses are we wearing?

The view they offer may seem very different from our normal way of seeing things.

Perhaps we are tempted to think that seeing things differently is beyond our reach.

But everything is there for us to see!

Everything is there!

It is not a fantasy!

God wants to give it to us!

We just have to ask!

Connexion, let me say, that to pray in this way... we are weak!

We pray for our job interviews, our studies, stress at work. That's excellent. God tells us to pray for those things.

But when it comes to praying for the change this passage talks about, we can do better. We must do better! I include myself in that. So much depends on it.

May I encourage us at the beginning of this year to aim for that?

To pray that God will take what we read in this book and make it the lenses in our glasses... even if you don't wear glasses.

Perhaps if there is one good resolution to make this year, it is this.

To pray, without ceasing, as Paul says, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him.