Exceedingly Abundantly Above

Exceedingly Abundantly Above

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20 NIV

I have had a chance to reflect while being on this vacation and I realized that God has a clear pattern in my life that I often forget about. He always puts me in places I don’t qualify to be. Whenever I just relax and let God drive, He leads me into places that I could never have bought, fought, learned or talked my way into. He truly has done exceedingly and abundantly more than I can ask or imagine. But in order to get to the place where I could participate in this, I needed to let go of the reigns. That is the difficult part.

It always seems to make more sense to build up an impressive resume and then go for the job you want after you qualify for it. It seems presumptuous and even premature to go after something that you don’t qualify for and expect a favorable result. But when I look at my life, all of the things that I have done of any notoriety at all, have functioned out of this “God-principal” of believing what He said I am, and trusting that I could do what He said I could, before I actually qualified to do it. It was after I took the step of faith that my resume was built. But before I went, I never qualified. I have to always be willing to go, even when I don’t think I can do it.

The hard part in that is having the faith and confidence to go through the open door to a place where God is leading. Most of us only look at our past experiences and function based on what that has the power to get for us. But God will stretch you. And you often know that it is God that is stretching you when you start the conversation with, “oh I don’t qualify to do that.” But you actually want to do it. You can taste it. You can feel it. But it takes faith to actually go forward.

And when you do move in faith, you see that doors are opened that never would have been opened before. You could do things that you didn’t even think were possible. You start to notice God’s resume in your life instead of your own. And the more you learn to let God build a resume in your life, the more you experience the life He called you to live. If we are good people, you know, morally upright, people who just want a good life for ourselves, we can probably get it through very traditional means. Go get a good education, get a good job, marry a good spouse, raise good kids, volunteer for good causes, do good deeds, treat people with respect, retire to a good lifestyle, etc. We can play it safe in life and let our own experience be our guides. But it doesn’t take a bunch of faith to do that. Playing it safe all the time is not the presence of faith, but the presence of fear. When do you take a chance to go after something that only God can get you? When do you look something dead in the face that is taunting you because it knows that you don’t personally have what it takes to conquer it?

In the bible, David didn’t qualify to beat Goliath, but he did. Jesus didn’t qualify to be the expected king of Israel, but he was. Maybe God is calling you to step out on faith into something that makes no sense. Maybe your resume doesn’t support the endeavor. But are you going to let your lack of experience stop you from experiencing God? Not only do you have a resume, but God has a resume in your life. Think back on the things that God has done in your life and the things that have happened that He has lead you towards. What does that resume look like? Is the result more than you could have ever imagined? Mine definitely is more than I could have qualified to get done. And I don’t intend to stop now. If this is what God has called me to do, then in obedience, I will go. Whatever it is. It rarely makes sense. I usually start the conversation with, “How are you gonna do that God? I don’t have the . . . (fill in the blank)”. And that is my cue. That’s why it’s faith. You have no clue, but trust that God does.

The impressive portions of my resume (at least in my mind) have more to do with the risk I was willing to take to get there more than the accomplishment itself. People seemed to be impressed by certain things I have or have done, but the truth is it wasn’t me at all. I actually didn’t qualify for it. Everything from my car to my house, my career, my current vacation. None of it do I actually deserve on my own merit. I can think back all the way to my formative years when I was skipped in the first grade and didn’t qualify to be in with the second graders according to my age. I can’t say that I knew what God was doing or that I was even aware of the presence of God in my life in an active way. But the good news for us is that it has little to do with how much you know God, but how much He knows you. And when you do come to a point of deeper and intimate knowledge of Him, you can stop trying to build up your own resume and let your resume be built by God. The results of it will be more than you could have ever imagined. More than you could possibly do on your own.