Far More

“Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”  (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Anything is possible for God, he can do all things. He can do anything that we could possibly imagine and things far beyond our imagination. I think when people read this scripture they often think about the grand things that God can do, the big miracles he has done such as parting the Red Sea, feeding the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread, or raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. But for me, the things that amaze me are the “little things” or at least what the world considers to be little or insignificant. I am overwhelmed and in awe that God loves me, he knows the depth of my heart, and still loves me. He is aware of every tear that I shed and they are precious to him. “My wanderings you have noted; are my tears not stored in your vial, recorded in your book?” (Psalm 56:9) He hears the unspoken prayer for wisdom and compassion that arises from my heart each time that I prepare to go into a room at the hospital and care for one of my patients. He hears my plea for courage to walk into the room of a family who has recently found out that the cancer has spread in their son’s brain and there are no other treatments to offer them. He gives me the strength to swallow my pride and ask for forgiveness for being short with my husband. He gives me the courage to lean into this relationship instead of pulling away and allowing the distance between us to grow which is so much easier to do.

The fact that God does all of these things for me and for each one of us is amazing to me. He never grows weary of our constant requests for our desires to be fulfilled with the things of this world. He never grows frustrated when we constantly try to do things our way and is always there when we realize that we can’t do this on our own and cry out to him. He is always there to wrap his loving arms around us when life is hard and we are so weary. God’s goodness is far beyond anything that we can comprehend. We need to believe this and surrender to him. We need to stop putting limits on God. It is our lack of faith that prevents us from seeing all of God’s splendor. We hear in Mark’s gospel that Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deeds there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.” (Mark 6:5-6)

Heavenly Father, I ask that you increase our faith! Help us to be open to your glory and in awe of your wonderful deeds. Open our eyes to the beauty around us and to see your majesty. Free our minds from our narrowness especially that we place on you. And we pray, as St. Paul did, that we may “have the strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Amen. (Ephesians 3:18-19)