We can know a great deal about God and still neglect the communion with Him that makes those truths increasingly real in our lives. In Ephesians 1, Paul moves from the remarkable realities believers possess in Christ to prayer. He does not primarily ask God to make the Ephesians' circumstances easier. He prays that they would know God more deeply and understand the hope, worth, and power that are already theirs in Christ. That movement reveals an important relationship between the gospel and prayer: prayer is where doctrine becomes experience.
The gospel has already given the believer access to God through Christ. Prayer is the exercise of that access. We have been justified, adopted, united with Christ, indwelt by the Spirit, reconciled to God, and given an inheritance—and prayer is part of learning to live in those realities. It is more than bringing God a list of things we want Him to change. In genuine communion with God, our desires are brought into harmony with His, the riches we have in Christ become more desirable than the riches of this world, and our weakness drives us to rest in His strength.
That brings the truth very close to home. We may have easy access to Scripture, sermons, commentaries, and more biblical information than ever before, while still knowing far less of the Lord in prayer. The answer is not simply another command to “pray more,” but a renewed understanding of what Christ has made possible: we have a Father to whom we can draw near. Prayer is where the gospel realities we believe begin to shape the way we face our burdens, our weakness, our desires, and the noise that so easily dominates our hearts.