My Brain Just Exploded

“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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

I don’t even know how to express how amazed I am over verse 20. The God of the Universe, Lord over nations, peoples, waters, land, animals, sees and knows every detail of your life. He knows your dreams, your desires, your fears, your secret wishes, and every place you’ve been. Now think of the wildest thing, your biggest hope or wish, and move past it. It’s not possible for our minds, but it’s possible for Him. And He doesn’t just go a little past what we dream of, he goes “immeasurably.” To infinity and beyond. My brain has not the capacity to think of it, but God does and it’s not even hard for Him. Incredible is not a challenge for God. It’s the same as us opening our eyes when we wake up on a weekend morning after sleeping in. Effortlessly. Are you fired up? He is able to do that for you and for me.

Now to the entrée. He does more than we can imagine “according to his power that is at work within us.” As someone who grew up in church from a young age, I had an early case of legalism. I wanted to be good enough for God. I was very focused on works and making myself look good and sort of forgetting that I actually needed to be saved and I couldn’t do it myself.

Now, if you noticed the earlier entries, which did we encounter first? Grasp God’s love or compel God to love you because of all your beautiful, lovely, good works? The latter doesn’t even show up. Who is it that does the work in us? Us? No. It’s God. Praise the Lord, it is God’s power at work in us. God loves my sorry self just as I am. I don’t have to earn His love. He wants me to be dropped right in the middle of it, to fill me with Himself, and then to work in me to create more than I can ask or imagine. Is that not the most unbelievable, gracious, compassionate thing ever? I have nothing to say but, “who am I that You would be so good to me?” And the answer, my friends, has nothing to do with who I am. It is all about who God is. He loves and gives what we do not deserve. And He brings glory to Himself because of it.

And may all glory belong to such a wonderful, majestic God for all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.