…Now to Him who is able… He is able. The emphasis on ‘He’ is the emphasis He wants us to have. But the question I ask 
myself is, do I view Him as the almighty powerful God that He is? Do I take His power away as I try to create and accomplish my task lists? Do I limit what He wants to do in my life? Each day I make choices that don’t always align with His word, they don’t align with His power.
Each day I make many good choices but then there are the not so good ones that bring guilt and feelings of failure. I know I don’t have a healthy balance in my life. When my hubby’s team does well racking up the wins, we can find ourselves riding the wave of the success enjoying the joys that come with it. Then we fall to the feeling of failure if the perfect job we thought we were going to get falls through, the job we thought God was giving us. Do I take away the power of God either puffed up on the joys of success or crushed under the weight of failure?
I continue to look deep into my heart and ask honestly if my circumstances alter my allowing Him to work in and through me, in His ability. Do I take away His mighty power, trying to do it on my own? When I find myself in a negative situation, a child not choosing the right path, my husband being let go from a team, a negative comment on my blog, a rejection of a book idea, I tend to shut down. I begin to replay negative thoughts over and over again in my head rather than praying and giving my circumstance to God.
When things are going great I don’t tend to pray to God about life. I am thankful and thank Him for the good times. It a blessing from God, you know, one of those piggy bank blessings. My ability to view His power as the almighty and powerful God is only when it is convenient to my emotions and circumstances. I need to realize His almighty power, allowing Him to work in and through me in His ability.
…to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. If we can embrace His ability and almighty power, this section of the verse begins to open up what God can do. God is always at work. He is a God of action who is able to do more than we can fathom in our human brain. Here we pause and make sure that we don’t get lost in the worldly lure of prosperity. God is not a genie is a bottle that we shout out a wish rub the belly of the bottle and poof out comes the wish of our desires. God wants to work in and through us to glorify Him and to benefit His kingdom. It may not be the way we envision the outcome, but it is the most beneficial for God.
God is an active God who wants to do immeasurably more, in His ability, to equip us for His good works.
….according to His power that is at work within us. His power is already at work within us, there is nothing we need ‘to
do’. God desires to use us to accomplish what only He could do. He desires obedience. He wants us to turn over all of our desire of control to Him. All of the times we believe we are in control floods our spirit. It is overwhelming that a great deal of the time we want to be in control. We stand in His way with; worry, anxiety, the to-do list, tasks piled high laden with the same worry and anxiety. By underestimating His power at work in us, we stand in the way of what only He can accomplish.
The list of ways we stand in His way is long and carries the theme, me not Him. The deceptive thought of our ability being more powerful than His is wrong. This control is limiting His power to work in and through me. All of these things make our lives shallow and unfulfilled. Using Him like a genie in a bottle, seeing Him as a piggy bank, prayers of my heart’s desires, not His desires for me is wrong. There is a huge wall built as a barrier to God. It is limiting His power to work.
Are we failing to seize the opportunity for Him to work? Give it all to Jesus. Turn over the control to Him allowing His spirit to flow freely through our souls.
I challenge you with the question, “What is God doing in and through you?” What can you turn over to Him this week to give His spirit to freely work in you? What control can you give up that will allow Him to work through you?
