Above all we ask or think

Watch Paul stack the language: able to do what we ask — above what we ask — abundantly above — exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. He keeps adding storeys to the sentence because the truth keeps outgrowing it. God’s capacity does not merely meet the request; it dwarfs the requester’s imagination.

“Or think” is the clause that catches the overflow. Some things we never ask because we cannot even conceive them as possibilities — the category of good we don’t have a name for yet. Paul says God works out there too, beyond the edge of our vocabulary, in the requests we were not creative enough to make.

And the power is not distant: according to the power that worketh in us — already resident, already working, the same power the previous verses trace back to the resurrection. So pray your small prayers this morning without shame; they are the right size for you. Just hold the outcomes loosely. The Answerer has a habit of exceeding the form as submitted.