More Than the Well Could Hold
There was a well on my grandfather’s place that everybody said had gone dry. Old timers would drive past it and shake their heads. The pump handle had rusted stiff. The trough beside it had cracked in the sun until it looked like a dry riverbed shrunk down to the size of a man’s outstretched arms.
My father didn’t believe it was dry. He believed it was just tired of being asked for so little.
He primed that pump with a coffee can of water he carried from the house, worked the handle slow and steady, cussed at it some under his breath, and prayed a little too, though he never would have called it that. After a long while the pipe coughed, sputtered, and then the water came. It came clear and cold and it came like it had somewhere to be. That well gave water to two families and a herd of cattle for another eleven years. It had never been dry. It had just never been asked for enough.
I think about that well every time I read the words Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. He said, “God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Read that slow. He is not able to do a little more than we ask. He is not able to match our biggest prayer with an equal answer. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above it. He is able to do more than our imagination can carry.
Scripture
“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”
Ephesians 3:20 (KJV)
God’s Power Has No Limits
We are creatures who live inside fences. We measure our faith by what we have already seen work. If the well has been dry before, we assume it will always be dry. But God’s power was never bound by what we have witnessed. It has no edge, no bottom, no place where it runs out. The limits we feel are ours. They were never His.
Beyond Our Prayers
Most of us pray like my father primed that pump, small and cautious, asking for just enough to get by. A little healing. A little peace. Enough to make it through the week. There is nothing wrong with those prayers. But they are often too small for what God intends to give. He is not looking to meet us halfway. He is looking to flood the trough.
Working Inside You
Here is the part that ought to stop us cold. This power is not stored somewhere far off, waiting on a better day. Paul says it works in us. Right now. In the tired heart, in the worried mind, in the body that feels like it has nothing left to give. The same power that raised a well from the dead ground is already working underneath whatever in your life looks finished.
Trust the Process
The well didn’t look like anything the day my father knelt beside it with a coffee can of water and a stubborn kind of hope. If you are staring at something in your life that looks dry, rusted shut, done, that is not the end of the story God is telling. He works behind the surface long before He works in the open. Trust what you cannot yet see moving.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank You for Your great power that works in me. Forgive me when I doubt Your strength or limit what You can do in my life. Help me to trust You more each day. Open my eyes to see the amazing things You want to do.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Written by Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Ed.D. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You are welcome to share or adapt it provided proper credit is given to the author.
