Why Ephesians 1:18

On our t-shirts we put the verse, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,". I wanted to do a blog post to explain why it was that Shaun and I chose to use this particular verse on our t-shirts. 


When Shaun and began actively seeking out what God wanted from us...how was it that He desired for us to serve Him, we prayed for God to enlighten our hearts. We literally used the word enlighten in our prayers. And it was after sitting in bed together one night, reading our Bibles that Shaun read this verse out loud to me, "I pray the eye of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,". There is more to this verse but Shaun stopped after he read the first half. Reading it kind of said everything that we were wanting, everything that we where desiring at that time in our spiritual lives. We desperately wanted to know what it was the He had called us to. We wanted to be enlightened to what it was that GOD wanted for our lives and not what our flesh wanted. That verse became our daily prayer. It became our cry to the Lord, and still is. It was that verse that originally lead us down this road. It was that verse that encouraged us to dig deeper into scripture, to dig deeper into our hearts to and to ultimately realize that what God was calling us to was that we were to take care of His children. That we would bring them into our home, into our family, because HE adopted us as sons and daughters the very day that Shaun and I accepted Jesus Christ into our hearts. 


We do not intend for this adoption to be our last. We pray that God leads us to an international adoption at some point down the road, when His timing is perfect. We will definitely be starting the process to become foster parents soon after this adoption is complete, if not during. We desperately want to love on children who need to be loved on. Who need to be raised in a Christian home where God's word and His amazing love is poured over them on a daily basis. We used the Ephesians 1:18 verse on the back of our t-shirts because we want people to read that verse and think to themselves, "What is it that God has called me to do?". We want people to pray for that enlightenment that Shaun and I prayed for. Maybe God is calling you to adoption, maybe to missions, maybe to serving within your church, maybe to a different job where you can better serve Him...I don't know where God might be calling you but do not be mistaken, He is calling. 

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6