Many of us have had experience on sports teams. There always seems to be two types of athletes who excel. There are those who just have natural talent. They are able to learn the skills faster, master the technique better and handle the ball with greater skill; they just seem to be good at it! Then there are the ones who don't have the best ball handling skills at first, or don't win the 2 mile run in the first week of practice, but through hard work and diligence earn their spot on the starting lineup. Both of these athletes - the naturally gifted and the hard worker - excel and are usually considered good athletes. But how does someone become a great athlete?
In Ephesians 3:20 Paul is not just reminding us how incredible God is. He is pointing us in the direction of experiencing revolutionary results in our lives. Paul is not saying that God is going to do immeasurably more than all He already planned to do; he is saying that God will do more than we ask. This assumes that we're asking for something. Once we've asked for it, the results are not going to drop out of the sky, but are going to come through Christ's power that is already in us. In other words, it is going to take both incredible faith and hard work to create revolutionary results.
For many of us being good at what we do is a high goal. We work hard to earn that promotion. We read books on healthy sleep habits to learn how to be better parents. We focus our time around our strengths, so that we can excel and end up on the starting lineup. But for many of us, we stop just short of what it takes to experience revolutionary results! Because, of course, what makes a great athlete is natural ability combined with a great work ethic. In our spiritual lives God is calling us to bring our best questions and all the power available to us and it is that offering that He will bless and turn into immeasurably more.
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