Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do You Expect Too Little From God? | Richard Blackaby | Ephesians 3:20

Episode Date: September 23, 2021

When you pray, what do you ask God for? Do you give God the space to do “immeasurably more” than you ask? Author Richard Blackaby shares why https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%203%3A20&version=NIV (Ephesians 3:20) is his favorite Bible verse and how he learned to pray big prayers for the glory of God's power. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit ourhttps://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ ( website) and follow us onhttps://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks ( Facebook),https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ ( Instagram), andhttps://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast ( Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Social Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks ( https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ ( https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter:https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast ( https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast) Passages https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%203%3A20&version=NIV (Ephesians 3:20) Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. My name is Richard Blackaby, and I wanted to share with you my favorite verse in the Bible. It's kind of hard to pick your favorite. It's like saying who your favorite child is. But I do have a favorite verse that whenever I'm pushed to the wall and ask just to give my favorite that I always refer to.

And that's Ephesians, Chapter 3, verse 20. And it says now to him who's able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. And there's so much in that little verse that is so impactful to me. First, it says now. And I like that because it's easy to believe that God was powerful in Moses' day or Jesus' day or Peter and Paul's day. But Paul here says, now he's able. not just then he was able, not eventually he'll be able, but now, today, in this hour, in your life,

in your situation, now he is able to do. And it's to him. It's not to you. It's not that now I am able to do exceedingly abundantly. It's about God. And I often have people say, well, I'm just an ordinary person. I'm not a pastor of a big church. I don't have much influence. I'm not in management. and I would say, well, I'm just grateful that it's not about me. It's not about my power. If my life was based on how powerful I was, I wouldn't have much of a life. But my life and what happens in my life is based on the power that God has. It's Him. It's God that is able, not me. Now God, to Him, is able. To do what? To do exceedingly abundantly, beyond anything that I could ask or even think to ask.

you'd use that in terms of prayer, what that's saying is Christ is able to do exceedingly more than I could ever even pray for or even think to pray for. And that has been a great challenge to me, because I used to set goals for myself. When I would pray for people, I would try to think, well, what's the best thing that I could ask God to do for that person? And then that's what I would ask God to do. And one day, God put this verse next to my prayer life and said, well, I'm glad that you're praying for your friend or for your son, but why are you asking me for so little? I could do exceedingly abundantly more than that, and you're satisfied with your best thinking. And what Ephesians 320 tells me is, people don't need my best, they need God's best.

And sometimes I've been too satisfied with my best thinking instead of God's. And so now, when I look at my life, when I look at my church, my work, my kids, family, my question is not what is the best thing that I can imagine for them but God place upon my heart and my mind what you want for those people God what is it that you want to do in my life and then as you put that on my heart now I'm going to strive for that and so that has revolutionized my life and so I put Ephesians 320 next to my life and I said that's what I want my life to reflect I want to look at my life and I want to say there is a visible demonstration of what Ephesians 320 looks like. I look at my life and I realized God did exceedingly abundantly more than I would

have ever dreamed. When I was starting out as a young man, I had all kinds of dreams and aspirations and zeal and passion for what could happen. But along the way, I just surrendered everything to God and said, God, do in my life what only you can do. And my prayer would be that I'll look back in my life and say, wow, God did exceedingly abundantly more than I could have ever asked or even thought to ask, all to the glory of God. I want my life to be a trophy to the grace and the power and the love of God. And so for any of you listening to this, take a fresh look at Ephesians 320, put your life next to that verse and say, God, I don't want anything less for my life than what I find in this amazing verse from your word.

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