Paul speaks of God as One “that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20). It should be obvious to us, as we think about God, that He is able to do wonderful things – if we accept that He exists, and He has given more than sufficient evidence that He does, beside what He has revealed about Himself in the Bible. Indeed He is all-powerful, but a god who is limited is not a god in any real sense. If then we think about God in the light of Scripture, we should be conscious that He can do what is truly wonderful, altogether beyond what we can imagine.
Further, we should ask God to do wonderful things for us, and for others. We must pray; and when we pray, we should believe that He is able to go far beyond what we ask Him to do. Paul is anxious to express these matters very strongly: not merely that God can do more than we ask or think, not merely that He can do abundantly above what we ask or think, but that He can do exceeding abundantly beyond that. There is no limit to God’s power in answering prayer; nor is there any limit to His understanding of the situation which calls for prayer; nor is there any limit to His wisdom in the way He answers the petitions asked of Him, for the sake of Christ.
We could apply these principles to many aspects of life, but let us try to understand what a Sabbath and, in particular, public worship on a Sabbath, might result in if God is pleased to answer our prayers for a profitable day, in a way “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”.
How should we think about the Sabbath? We should recognise it as a gift from God, an opportunity to put the things of the world away as far as possible and to focus on spiritual realities. In particular, we should all seek to get spiritual good for our souls. When we read the Bible, we should ask the Lord to bless it to us; when we hear the Word of God preached, we should again ask for spiritual good.
When unconverted people ask for such things, they may well be praying in a mechanical fashion – because they know that this is what they ought to do. But they may also be driven to pray if they feel some sense of danger because of the lost eternity that is before them. They may as yet have no
sense of the blessedness of a godly life, but they wish to avoid being cast down to hell and, instead, to enter heaven at last. But, even so, they may wish to postpone their turning from sin to Christ until their life in this world is almost over, for they assume that a life of sin will be much more pleasant than one which involves submission to God and His commandments. Yet God may graciously hear their prayers, although all they are asking for is to escape His wrath in a lost eternity.
But when God answers such a prayer, He not only delivers sinners from the wrath to come; He brings them into His own family. Then they begin to see the wonder of having God as their Father, and His other children as their brothers and sisters. God’s law no longer seems unreasonable or oppressive; it is good; it provides helpful boundaries for their way through life, keeping them from harm and danger. They discover that God has done “exceeding abundantly above all” that they ever asked or thought.
Sinners may go to church with no hope of finding deliverance from their burden of sin; they may try to pray but there seems to be no answer. Yet God is not rejecting their prayer when they feel there is no answer. They may come close to despair, but in their reading of the Scriptures or in the preaching they hear, the Holy Spirit may apply to their hearts the truth that there is a Saviour whom God has appointed for sinners like them, One who is able to deliver them. And when they can hope that they have indeed been delivered from the guilt and power of sin, God has done “exceeding abundantly above all” that they asked or thought.
And what Sabbath blessings should people pray for? First perhaps, that they would not be distracted unnecessarily by the ordinary affairs of this world. In doing so they are asking for two things, one of which has to do with God’s providence: that He may so order their affairs that the time which has to be devoted to the things of this life, such as preparing food, can be kept to a minimum. The other matter they are asking for is that their minds would be so restrained that they would not wander unnecessarily away from thinking about spiritual things.
We might assume that, if our prayer is answered, nothing would happen to interrupt, for example, profitable meditation. Yet God’s thoughts are higher than ours (Is 55:9); He may allow distractions to come our way to test us. Are we then willing to turn our attention, as far as possible, from the interesting things happening outside our window, say, to the higher things that involve God and our eternal destiny? If we live in the spirit of the original petition, we will follow it up with further petitions. God tries His people in order to bring them to realise their weakness and to trust all the more firmly on the One who died for them and is now making intercession for them before
His Father’s throne. And He is training them to resist temptation. We should learn that, when God seems not to answer prayer, He has higher ends in view than those which result from our limited outlook.
God’s children may be troubled by their continuing ignorance. They may pray about the matter, conscious that they understand so little of His Word and so little of His dealings with them in providence. But they go prayerfully to the Bible and they get further light on, for instance, the way of salvation and God’s faithfulness to those who trust in Him; they go to public worship and get some light, perhaps, on God’s providence and how “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom 8:28). To be conscious of receiving God’s blessing on His Word will make a Sabbath truly memorable and is further evidence of how God can answer prayer.
Believers should be seeking growth in grace as they pray, as they read the Scriptures and, not least, as they go to hear the Word preached. We should notice the connection that Peter makes (in 2 Pet 3:18) between growth in the knowledge of Christ and growth in grace: there cannot be growth in grace apart from coming to know the Saviour better, and that includes learning more about Him. And the preaching of the gospel is an important means ordained by God to teach His people about the One who came into the world to save sinners; so preaching is an important means of growth in grace. Thus it is a profitable Sabbath when, through the ministry of the Word, Christians have their faith strengthened, their love made firmer, and their other graces advanced also.
When someone has prayed, before going to church, that some sinner would be converted, this person may consider it a wonderful answer to prayer if it becomes clear that the Word was indeed blessed on that occasion. And wonderful it truly would be. Yet if more than one sinner received a blessing, does it not show that God “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”? And should that thought not encourage us to ask for greater things – to ask, for instance, that many sinners would be brought into the kingdom of God, rather than just one?
We should never lose sight of the fact that God is able to work in such ways. Yet we must never presume that God will answer our petitions according to our ideas of what is best. We are fallible; He knows everything and has a perfect understanding. At best we have an imperfect grasp of what is most for God’s glory; His grasp is perfect. We are shortsighted; He sees everything from an eternal perspective. None of this should restrain us from praying; rather it should encourage us; the One who “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” knows what is the best way to answer the petitions addressed to Him. And we should be content with that.