I recently heard one of the most unique reasons behind a sports loss I have ever known as I caught the end of the World Cup match between Sweden and England. The announcer stated that Sweden’s loss was due to “insufficient imagination.” Now, as a Carolina fan I have come up with some interesting theories as to why we lost but was not nearly imaginative enough to blame “insufficient imagination.” I am afraid I do not know enough about soccer to know whether the Swedes having a sufficient imagination would have secured them victory, however I do think an “insufficient imagination” is a condition from which a lot of Christians suffer.

One of the prayers we will be studying this month during our Sunday evening Bible study is Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3. His prayer concludes with one of the greatest challenges to a Christian found in Scripture: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” I confess I have always read this as a challenge from God to see just how big I can pray. It’s almost like He is nudging me saying, “Come on, I can do things bigger than you can cook up in your head, pray bigger.” The wonderful thing is that as I have found Him faithful to answer these ever-increasing prayers, I have seen what I thought to be impossible occur repeatedly. It is helpful to remember sometimes that we serve a God who majors in doing the impossible because then only He gets the glory.