God Does Abundantly More In His Church Than We Can Imagine
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV Read More
Whenever it becomes a cliche that God can do more than we ask or imagine, we need to reboot and think about this verse again. He’s able to do abundantly more. If He were only able to do double of what we could imagine, then we’d know exactly how much God could do. Instead, Paul says God can do far more abundantly than all we can imagine.
I can imagine some pretty big stuff!
The truth reveals itself when we start to think about what we want God to do. It usually affects us for the next week to 5 years at the most. God sees ahead to the stories our grandkids will tell their grandkids. God sees ahead to the way a kid will be affected by the way their mom was affected when she was a kid and went to that school with the cool mural painted outside.
There is one way that we could read this and think that we are really going to mess everything up. ”If my decisions cause a train wreck that sends my family off for generations, I’ll be a failure for decades!” Well, that’s true that there could be negative effects for decades, and that it was even your fault, but look at what else is happening.
According to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church God is working even in our mishaps and mess-ups. God uses a dad’s alcoholism to harden the reserve of his children to never start drinking. God uses that church split to reach 100s of more different kinds of people. God uses that woman grieving the loss of her child to reach out to dozens of teen moms that wouldn’t normally receive sympathy for a miscarriage.
God is at work within us, the Church, to CONTINUALLY do abundantly more than we can imagine. As you look at the scriptures, it isn’t driven by God’s excessive creativity or His desire to try new things. This abundance of turning poo into roses is out of His love for us! Many people judge God’s love for them by their circumstances that they brought upon themselves. What if instead, we looked for God’s love in the unexpected ripples of our circumstances?
Glory to God in all circumstances. Wherever the church is showing up to work and to show off Christ’s power, there is potential for God to knock our socks off. Even more than that…
You can get the Daily Bible Readings to your inbox via email every day by subscribing here. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.