I wish I could always address God in prayer as Paul did: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . .” (Ephesians 3:20).
If I more consistently believed that mine was a God to answer well beyond my asking, I would pray more often and more boldly. Faith taught Paul to begin this way, a faith that routinely cast mountains into the sea. Paul does not merely address a hearing God, but an answering God.
Yet he reaches higher. Paul does not simply address an answering God, but a God who answers prayer far better than we can even think to pray. He summons us to call upon a high and able God: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . .”
My heart, on weaker days, struggles to lift its voice to such a God. It has questions. When I try to take the text seriously, doubts interrupt: If he is the one who can answer this way, why hasn’t he? If he can answer “far above” what I can ask or think, why hasn’t he answered what I have already asked, already thought? I have been able to pray many wonderful things that never happened. Unanswered prayers edit the text: “Now to him who is often unable to do the modest things you think and request . . .”
Little doubts like these can sting the heart to death, leaving behind prayers far less triumphant. The salvation of a prodigal son, the healing of a dying mother, the safe delivery of your first child — he answered differently from how you prayed. How do you bow the knee and begin, “To you who are able to do far more abundantly than all I can ask or think”?
Maybe your suspicions seep deeper. You doubt not his power but his heart. Not “to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” — but “to him who won’t.” When Christ was on earth, a leper knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” You’ve prayed that way before. You know he can if he really wants to. But does he want to? Christ’s answer to that leper seems different from his answer to you: “I will; be clean” (Matthew 8:2–3).
I hope to encourage you (and myself) to pray to this God of abundant capability. No matter your questions or disappointments, Paul is praying (and directing us to pray) to this God, the only God. In other words, let God be true and our doubts the liar. Let us look more closely together at this God to whom Paul lifts our eyes. I hope to convince us both to pray to this God this new year.
The God Who Is Able
Now to him who is able . . .
His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. He is the one “who is able.” His are the resources. His is the ability to do always and only as he pleases on earth and in heaven. If he does not answer as we ask, it is never because he lacks.
Notice, heart too slow to believe, that Paul directs us to the God of unlimited ability — while he writes from prison. His God can grant any request, though he knows well enough that every request is not granted. But for Paul, unanswered prayer no more cancels confidence in God’s power than a bitter soul complaining in the shade kills the sun. We faint before the silent heavens, not because God is unable, but because we are too unwise to know why his silence is a mercy.
The ability of God is a go-to appeal in the Epistles. To the Romans: “Now to him who is able to strengthen you” (Romans 16:25). To Jewish Christians: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). To the Corinthians: “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
Unbelief does not cry out to this God. Doubt does not know his name. Understanding this, Jesus asked two blind men, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” The god of half-hearted, storm-tossed prayers is sometimes willing, sometimes able. How our prayer life might awake were Jesus to interrupt us with the same question: “Do you believe I am able to do this?” How our faith might rise were we to answer, “Yes, Lord,” alongside the blind men — the ones who were healed according to their faith (Matthew 9:27–29).
To Do More Than You Think
. . . to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . .
Paul’s God is not only the Able One, but the Able One who answers better than we can ask or even think to ask. What we bring ourselves to ask for is a lake; what we can think to ask for is an ocean; God soars far above both. We can translate the Greek word for “far more abundantly” as “quite beyond all measure, the highest form of comparison imaginable.” Our God can accomplish far higher than all our tallest prayers.
For over a month now, my son has asked me and my wife (almost nightly) whether we are going to his birthday party. Here is the supreme request he can imagine: a birthday party, with all the same people who have been at his other birthday parties, with cake and ice cream at an indoor park. He goes to bed thinking about this party. It is the supreme pleasure of his little mind. He asks us, reminds us, importunately. He can think of nothing higher.
Like son, like father. How often do I pray, “Lord, remember to come to my birthday party!” It is a good request, but my heart toward my son far exceeds going to his birthday party. I desire to secure things for him that he does not yet know to pray for, wonders that he would brush aside if placed next to a Paw Patrol cake. I plead for him to have a new heart, for forgiveness of sins, for a godly spouse, for a purposeful life now and eternal life to come — but what are these to a three-year-old?
God himself teaches us many good requests. But it is still true that “we do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Romans 8:26). We do not know what is best. Our God is not so afflicted. He plans to answer his children far above what we could ever ask or think — even when his answers conflict with what we did ask for.
Proof
With unanswered prayers gnawing at our heart, why can we trust that he will answer us above and beyond what we can ever ask or think? Because he already has. This appears the only just conclusion when we consider all the evidence already given in Ephesians. Paul presents us as formerly dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of this age, full of disobedience and children of wrath. When we didn’t think to pray or repent, he made us alive together with Christ. Our passage in full:
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)
To consider God’s power already at work within Christians is to attempt to wrap our arms around the base of a mountain. Paul prayed for supernatural wisdom and revelation to begin to know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19). To do far above all we could ever ask is a continuation of his goodness toward us, not the initiation of it.
You never, of yourself, thought to ask for forgiveness, yet he answered. You never conceived of eternal life, yet he secured it anyway. You never knew the horror of that word hell, the glory of that word grace, the wonder of that word gospel, the life in that name Jesus, yet while the twisted prayer of your dead heart was for more of this world, sin, and rebellion, he answered you with heaven, his Spirit, his Son, and himself.
Believe
May we not sail any more prayers on the leaky vessel and rough waves of doubt. The God of Paul is our God: the One Who Is Able to do far more abundantly than we can ever ask or think. Some of us do not know him by this monicker. Let Spurgeon confront us:
If you believe in prayer at all, expect God to hear you. If you do not expect, you will not have. God will not hear you unless you believe He will hear you; but if you believe He will, He will be as good as your faith. He will never allow you to think better of Him than He is. (Autobiography, 1:25)
He will be as good as your faith. He will never allow you to think better of him than he is. When you pray, hear Jesus ask you, “Do you believe I can do this?” Rouse your faith to attempt the impossible this year: outpray God’s goodness. Try to ask and think higher than he can answer and see how he meets your confidence in him with unexpected blessing that bows you in humble worship and lifts your voice to call out to others: “Now to him who answers above and beyond what we can ever think to ask . . .”
Desiring God