Immeasurably More

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Have you ever been in one of those situations where you feel stuck, where you know what you want God to do in your heart but there's just something blocking you from doing it, or asking for it, or in some cases, you don't even know what to ask for. 

I've been in that boat before, and honestly this morning was one of those days for me.  Not going to embellish  but I just felt really overwhelmed and I went into my prayer time really wanting God to do something.  

I read today's devotion in Jesus Calling, something that was really good for the soul, and I needed that reminder from the devotion today.  When I started to pray, I had this thought pop in my head, especially as my mind was really all over the place.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..." (Eph 3:20)

 And somehow, in that moment, it dawned on me that perhaps the reason that my mind was blocked was that my thoughts weren't particularly aligned with His thoughts, and perhaps I should just pray this verse.  And I can't explain it, but I felt God "show up" (as if He was really gone) and felt Him working in me at that moment.  I was kind of expecting to check the box this morning, and instead God did something beyond what I could ask or imagine... He filled me up, put my focus on HIM, and gave me this peace and sense of life that I'm blogging about today.  That was awesome.  I'm not sure how He will answer any of the other prayers that I offered up a "I don't know what to pray for, but I know you want to do in this situation more than I can ask for imagine" prayer this morning, but He gave me, in a way that I can only explain by talking about my experience, a confidence that He is for me and is working.  

 It got me thinking though, isn't that what God wants to do in all of our lives?

Reading through the Bible, you see a theme of a God who LOVES to do things that we think are impossible.  David slaying Goliath, a nation of slaves being rescued from Egypt... the list goes on and on.  But if you hear what Jesus says to us about being a citizen of the Kingdom, it should (if we're honest) make us realize that what He wants to make in us is also something beyond what we can really conjure up.  Like:
  • Forgiving someone at the heart level vs. the ledger level.
  • Truly being content with where we are while the culture bombards us with messages about our inadequacy.  
  • Despite our past, having a deep confidence in the favor of God in our lives and living that out.
  • Truly falling in love with Jesus
  • Truly making us come alive (as St. Iraneus said once "The glory of God is man fully alive")
Those are a few.  And you know that we're all good about working within the disciplines that we can manage and following the simple principles that we are taught (sometimes ;) ).  Those tend to work well on the outsides and we do reap good things from living wisely, but what if we actually asked God to do  something amazing in our lives that ONLY HE can do?  What if, just what if... someone looking at your life couldn't explain what makes you tick without Jesus being in the middle of it? 

That's what I want.  That's what I want to ask for.  Do you?  

It may make a whole world's worth of difference.  

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