Immeasurably More

You might recognize this highly quotable verse:

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 … ¹

But did you know that this verse comes at the end of a prayer? We may often apply this Scripture to the overwhelming needs we have or an impossible challenge we are facing: a wayward child, a broken relationship, financial struggles, an illness, an unreasonable boss. God is able and certainly the Lord has proven himself faithful to surprise us by doing the unimaginable in our lives, but the immediate context of Ephesians 3:20 is not to give us a general promise for God to grant an elusive dream or satisfy our deepest desires (though he certainly can). ²

There is value in understanding the original context of the Scriptures we love to quote. This is not to strip any power from the promises of God, but rather to intensify and bring focus to that power. By understanding Paul’s original intention, what he wanted the Ephesians to grasp, we can see what God wants us to see, what He values us to know, and what is of foremost importance in His mighty promise.

This promise of God comes at the tail end of a powerful prayer Paul was praying for the Ephesians. He was asking God to grant to the Ephesian church five specific things,

• An inner strength so that Jesus would settle in their hearts

• That they would be rooted and grounded in love

• The power to grasp the all-encompassing ocean of the vast love of Jesus

• To know His unknowable love

• To be filled up with the fullness of God

What a prayer! What a desire! Grasping and living out of the love of God. 

Can you imagine yourself being patient when the ones closest to you are pushing your buttons? Not just a one-time patience, but a consistent patience! Imagine being known for your gracious and sweet disposition instead of a fiery and sour attitude? God is able to do way beyond that in you!

Have you ever prayed that your anger would not rise up and spiral out of control? Or that your uncontrollable temper would not be the way you deal with frustration or fear? Have you ever imagined that instead of irritability and a raised voice, gentleness and reasonable behavior would pour out of you? God is more than able to bring that about in you!

Anyone who knows their own heart well and understands the frailty of human nature will realize that love is not our default. The poor in spirit among us have learnt that the possibility of achieving such a love in our own strength is out of reach. Oh yes, all of us are quite nice in the right situation, but wrong us or the ones we love, push that hidden button, and the strength of our human love is shown for what it truly is: fallible.

But with God, all things are possible. He is able to make us more loving, more an example of grace and mercy, more rooted, more filled with love, than we can ask or imagine; immeasurably more! This is what Paul is praying for and wants the Ephesians to understand and experience. And God himself wants us to understand and experience that love firsthand. God wants us to procure the unprocurable. ³

John the apostle explains to us what is at the heart of love,

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ⁴

This is love. Love (true love) is not deserved or earned - it is given freely, without strings attached or expectation of return. Love does not need motivation to love - it is self-motivated. Jesus' love is not coerced; it gladly gives of itself. It can no more restrain itself than the light of the rising sun that shines upon us all. God, who is love, has loved the unlovely and invited the unlovable to come to Him. 

May we be witness to this great love of God. May we know it. May we experience it. May we walk it out and may our lives exemplify it. And may others feel the warmth of this love from us. Can God do this in us? Can He? I know that He can, for He can do immeasurably more than what we could ask or even imagine.

References

¹ Ephesians 3:20

² Matthew 8:2 - A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

1 John 5:14 - This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

³ 1 John 4:16 - And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:10-11 NIV