The Faith to Ask for Greater Things

There are things right in front of us every single day that we completely fail to see.

Consider water. It covers 71 percent of the earth's surface and makes up 60 percent of your body. You interact with it constantly. And yet a single drop of water contains 5 quintillion molecules. You have looked at water your entire life and never once seen what is actually there.

Or consider your own body. Right now, 37.2 sextillion chemical reactions are happening inside you. Your heart will beat 100,000 times today. The DNA packed into every one of your 30 trillion cells, if unraveled and laid end to end, would stretch 34 billion miles. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has been traveling at 38,000 miles per hour for nearly 49 years and has only covered 16 billion miles. The DNA in your body extends more than twice that distance.

And then there is the night sky. The stars you see when you look up are not showing you their light in real time. Some of that light left its source long before Jesus walked the earth. Our galaxy alone would take 100,000 years to cross at the speed of light. And scientists estimate there are 2 trillion galaxies.

The universe is staggering. The human body is staggering. Even a droplet of water is staggering. And if the things God created are this incomprehensibly vast and complex, what does that say about God himself? What level of power does he actually possess? And here is the question that should stop us cold: if that God says he wants to work in your life, why are we asking him for so little?

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In John 14, Jesus makes a remarkable statement. He tells his followers that anyone who has faith in him will do what he has been doing, and will do even greater things. Then he adds that he will do whatever is asked in his name, so that the Father may be glorified. The invitation is extraordinary. The God who constructed the cosmos, who engineered the molecular structure of water, who wove DNA into every living cell, is offering unparalleled access to his power. Not so that we can chase personal greatness, but so that we can be part of something that outlasts our temporary lives.

So why do we not see this more often?

Sometimes God does not answer prayers because they are shortsighted and he has something better in mind. Sometimes, as James 4:3 points out, prayers go unanswered because the motivations behind them are self-serving. Sometimes the timing is simply not right. But there is one category of unanswered prayer that deserves our full attention: the prayers that never get prayed at all.

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The Old Testament story of Elijah and Elisha captures this tension beautifully. Elijah had been the defining spiritual figure of his generation. He had stood against corrupt rulers, performed signs and wonders, and served as living proof that God had not abandoned his people. But his time on earth was ending, and everyone knew it.

As Elijah prepared for his departure, his apprentice Elisha refused to leave his side. Three times Elijah told him to stay behind. Three times Elisha said he would not go. When they reached the Jordan River, Elijah rolled up his cloak and struck the water. The river divided, and they crossed on dry ground. On the other side, Elijah asked Elisha what he could do for him before he was taken away.

Elisha's answer is remarkable. He asked for a double portion of the spirit that rested on Elijah. Every miracle, every act of faith, every demonstration of God's power that Elijah had ever walked in, Elisha wanted twice that. Elijah's response was honest: "You have asked a difficult thing."

When was the last time your prayer life could be described that way?

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One of the deepest reasons we fail to ask God for greater things is not that we doubt his power. It is that experience has trained us not to expect anything beyond what we have already seen. We assume that God's power belonged to a different era, or to a particular person, or to someone more qualified than us. We look at the Elijahs of history and think, if only someone like that were still around.

But Jesus does not say that greater things are available to the spiritually elite. He says they are available to anyone who has faith in him. That includes you.

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After Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind of fire, Elisha was left alone. He tore his clothes in grief. Then he walked back to the Jordan River with Elijah's cloak in his hands and 50 men watching from the other side. He had no personal track record of miracles. He had no mentor standing beside him. He had only what God had promised.

He raised the cloak and struck the water. The river divided.

Here is the thing worth sitting with: Elisha had received the double portion when Elijah's mantle fell to him. But he did not have proof of what God had made available until he was willing to act. Asking for greater things is not just believing that God can. It is taking steps of faith believing that he will.

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You may be standing at a similar crossing point right now. Behind you is the comfort of how things have been. Ahead of you is something you cannot yet see clearly. And you are being asked to strike the water.

What would happen if you started praying as though God actually wanted to do something with your situation? Not praying as if he could but probably will not. Praying with courage and consistency, returning again and again even when nothing seems to change, trusting that God is at work even when the evidence is not yet visible.

The power is available. The invitation is open. The only question is whether you will ask.