God himself teaches us many good requests. But it is still true that “we do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Romans 8:26). We do not know what is best. Our God is not so afflicted. He plans to answer his children far above what we could ever ask or think — even when his answers conflict with what we did ask for.

I wish I could always address God in prayer as Paul did: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . .” (Ephesians 3:20).

If I more consistently believed that mine was a God to answer well beyond my asking, I would pray more often and more boldly. Faith taught Paul to begin this way, a faith that routinely cast mountains into the sea. Paul does not merely address a hearing God, but an answering God.

Yet he reaches higher. Paul does not simply address an answering God, but a God who answers prayer far better than we can even think to pray. He summons us to call upon a high and able God: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think . . .”

My heart, on weaker days, struggles to lift its voice to such a God. It has questions. When I try to take the text seriously, doubts interrupt: If he is the one who can answer this way, why hasn’t he? If he can answer “far above” what I can ask or think, why hasn’t he answered what I have already asked, already thought? I have been able to pray many wonderful things that never happened. Unanswered prayers edit the text: “Now to him who is often unable to do the modest things you think and request . . .”

Little doubts like these can sting the heart to death, leaving behind prayers far less triumphant. The salvation of a prodigal son, the healing of a dying mother, the safe delivery of your first child — he answered differently from how you prayed. How do you bow the knee and begin, “To you who are able to do far more abundantly than all I can ask or think”?

Maybe your suspicions seep deeper. You doubt not his power but his heart. Not “to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” — but “to him who won’t.” When Christ was on earth, a leper knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” You’ve prayed that way before. You know he can if he really wants to. But does he want to? Christ’s answer to that leper seems different from his answer to you: “I will; be clean” (Matthew 8:2–3).

I hope to encourage you (and myself) to pray to this God of abundant capability. No matter your questions or disappointments, Paul is praying (and directing us to pray) to this God, the only God. In other words, let God be true and our doubts the liar. Let us look more closely together at this God to whom Paul lifts our eyes. I hope to convince us both to pray to this God this new year.

The God Who Is Able

Now to him who is able . . .

His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. He is the one “who is able.” His are the resources. His is the ability to do always and only as he pleases on earth and in heaven. If he does not answer as we ask, it is never because he lacks.

Notice, heart too slow to believe, that Paul directs us to the God of unlimited ability — while he writes from prison. His God can grant any request, though he knows well enough that every request is not granted. But for Paul, unanswered prayer no more cancels confidence in God’s power than a bitter soul complaining in the shade kills the sun. We faint before the silent heavens, not because God is unable, but because we are too unwise to know why his silence is a mercy.

The ability of God is a go-to appeal in the Epistles. To the Romans: “Now to him who is able to strengthen you” (Romans 16:25).

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