God's Ability Is Unlimited

When God Says "Watch This": Trusting a God Without Limits

There is a moment that most of us have experienced, even if we have never given it a name. It is that moment when a problem grows so large, so complex, so seemingly permanent, that we stop praying about it with any real expectation. We still go through the motions. We still bow our heads and speak the words. But somewhere beneath the surface, we have quietly concluded that this particular situation is simply beyond fixing.
We pray, "Lord, if you are able." And in those three small words, we reveal everything about how we actually view God in that moment.
The apostle Paul would have something to say about that.
In Ephesians 3, Paul closes out a remarkable chapter with one of the most breathtaking prayers in all of Scripture. He writes that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. That verse, Ephesians 3:20, is not a decorative phrase meant to look good on a wall hanging. It is a theological declaration that is meant to completely reshape the way we approach every impossible situation in our lives. So let us sit with it for a moment.

God Is Bigger Than Your Biggest Problem

Paul does not begin his prayer by cataloguing the needs of the believers in Ephesus. He does not start with the problems. He starts with God. And that sequence is intentional.
We are creatures of circumstance. We look at what is in front of us and we allow the size of our problem to determine the size of our faith. But Paul is calling us to reverse that equation entirely. The size of your problem should never determine your confidence in God. Instead, the size of your God should determine how you view your problem.
Your circumstances are limited. Your resources are limited. Your wisdom is limited. But God operates outside every one of those boundaries. He is not confined by time, restricted by resources, or surprised by complexity. Throughout Scripture, we see God stepping into situations that were completely beyond human resolution. The Red Sea did not part because someone found a clever solution. The walls of Jericho did not fall because of superior military strategy. Lazarus did not walk out of that tomb because medicine intervened. In each case, God did what only God could do, and he did it precisely because human ability had reached its end.
That is often where God does his best work.

More Than You Thought to Ask For

Paul piles words on top of words in Ephesians 3:20, and that is not an accident. He is straining against the limits of language to communicate something that language cannot fully hold. God does not simply answer prayer. He answers beyond what you asked. Beyond what you imagined. Beyond what you thought was even on the table.
Consider King Solomon, who asked God for wisdom to govern well and to lead with integrity. What he received was a depth of wisdom that made him the wisest person in human history. That was not what he asked for. That was God doing more than was requested.
Consider Joseph, who could not have possibly imagined that being sold into slavery by his own brothers and thrown into prison would become the path through which God would save entire nations from famine. The road looked like devastation. The destination was deliverance.
Consider Ruth, a widowed foreigner with no obvious future, who could not have known that her faithfulness would place her in the very lineage through which the Messiah would come.
In each of these stories, God's answer was not just different from what was expected. It was better. Larger. More purposeful. And it always served something greater than the individual involved. That is a pattern worth paying attention to.

The Power Is Already at Work

Here is something that can easily be missed in Ephesians 3:20. Paul does not describe God's power as something that will one day be available to believers. He describes it as power that is already at work within us. Present tense. Active. Now.
This is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. The same power that transforms broken people into redeemed ones. The same power that sustains and grows the church across generations. And it is not distributed in portions, as though God must divide his attention across the many people calling out to him. He is ever-present, fully at work in every believer simultaneously.
The problem is not that the power is absent. The problem is that we do not live as though it is present. We feel weak, and we conclude that we are without resource. We feel confused, and we conclude that we are without guidance. We feel like failures, and we conclude that God must see us the same way. But God sees his people as fully equipped and empowered by his Spirit, because that is how he designed us to function, in relationship with him, drawing on strength that is not our own.

The Bigger Picture

Paul ends this passage with a reminder that God's power always serves God's purpose. The ultimate goal is not that our lives become more comfortable or that our problems disappear. The ultimate goal is that God receives glory through the lives of his people, in the church, throughout all generations.
That reframes everything. Every answered prayer is not just a personal blessing. It is a testimony. It is evidence that God is real, that he is active, and that he is worth trusting. When God moves in your life, it has a ripple effect on everyone watching.
So what is that impossible situation you have stopped praying about with any real expectation? What is the thing that feels too broken, too far gone, too complicated for even God to address?

That is exactly where God wants to begin.

Dream bigger. Ask for the impossible. Approach the throne not with timid, hedging requests, but with the bold confidence of someone who knows that the God they are speaking to has no limits. Because what is impossible for you has never once been impossible for him.