What Is the Last Big Thing You Asked God For?

When was the last time you asked God for something really big?

Not simply a prayer to get through the week. Not just a request for safety, health, or an easier day. But a prayer so big that if God answered it, you would have no explanation other than God did it.

For many of us, those kinds of prayers become less common over time. Our prayers can become smaller and more predictable, shaped by what we think is realistic or what we expect God might actually do.

Sometimes disappointment teaches us to lower our expectations. Sometimes years of waiting make us hesitant to ask God to change anything. Sometimes we make our prayers smaller because we're afraid of being disappointed.

But what happens when our prayers become smaller than our understanding of who God is?

The Apostle Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 challenges us to pray differently—to pray bigger, deeper, and wider because we serve a God who is able to do more than we can imagine.

Why Do Our Prayers Become Smaller?

Small prayers aren't necessarily wrong. God cares about the details of our lives, and there is nothing wrong with asking Him to help us through ordinary circumstances.

The problem comes when our prayers become confined by our expectations.

We may pray for our children to be safe when we could also pray that they would become courageous followers of Jesus.

We may ask God simply to help us get through the week when we could ask Him to interrupt our plans with something far better than we imagined.

And after experiencing disappointment, we may stop asking God to change our circumstances altogether.

Our prayers can become manageable—and even controllable. But God is not limited by the boundaries we put around our prayers.

Let the Character of God Shape Your Prayers

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 gives us a picture of what it looks like to pray with greater faith.

He doesn't begin by asking God to make the Ephesians' circumstances easier. Instead, he prays for something deeper.

He prays that God would:

• Strengthen them through the Holy Spirit.
• Make Christ at home in their hearts through faith.
• Root and establish them in love.
• Help them grasp the width, length, height, and depth of Christ's love.
• Fill them with the fullness of God.

These are big prayers.

Paul is not merely praying that people would survive another day. He is praying that they would experience the transforming presence and power of God deep within them.

That changes the way we think about prayer.

Instead of asking only, “God, can You fix this situation?” we can also ask, “God, what do You want to do in me through this situation?”

Become Rooted in the Love of Christ

Paul describes believers as being “rooted and established in love.” It's a fitting image.

Just as a tree needs deep roots to withstand storms, we need deep roots in the love of Christ to withstand the storms of life.

It's easy to root our lives in other things:

• Achievement
• Approval
• Control
• Financial security
• Being needed
• Success
• Being right

But none of those things can hold us permanently. When the storms come, they can leave us feeling uprooted.

Paul points us toward something that does not change: the love of Jesus Christ.

The deeper our roots grow into Christ's love, the more secure we become—not because life becomes easier, but because our foundation becomes stronger.

Discover the Width, Length, Height, and Depth of Christ's Love

Paul prays that believers would grasp how wide, long, high, and deep the love of Christ is.

The love of Christ is wide enough to include people we might otherwise exclude.

It is long enough to remain faithful through every season of our lives.

It is high enough to lift us beyond shame, despair, and the feeling that we don't have enough to give.

And it is deep enough to reach the places we would rather hide from everyone else.

And there's something remarkable about this love: we can experience it without ever exhausting it.

We can know Christ's love deeply, yet there is always more. Like a cup that overflows, the love of Christ stretches beyond the limits of our ability to comprehend it.

You Were Never Meant to Experience God's Love Alone

Paul doesn't pray that believers would experience the fullness of Christ's love in isolation. He prays that they would experience it together with all God's people.

There is something about Christian community that allows us to experience the richness and fullness of God's love in ways we cannot experience by ourselves.

We need one another.

Younger Christians need the wisdom of those who have walked with Christ for decades. Older Christians can be encouraged by the freshness and zeal of younger believers. Those who feel strong need the testimony of people who have endured suffering.

The fullness of the Body of Christ helps us experience the fullness of Christ's love. That's why Christian community matters.

Ministry happens through relationships, and deeper, healthier relationships give us greater opportunities to experience the vastness of God's love.

Pray to the God Who Can Do More

Paul eventually reaches the reason behind his enormous prayer.

He knows who he is praying to.

Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power at work within us.

Think about that.

God isn't merely able to answer our prayers. He is able to do more than we can ask. And He is able to do more than we can imagine.

In fact, Paul says He can do immeasurably more.

That means the limits of our imagination aren't the limits of God's power.

Big Faith Doesn't Mean Easy Answers

Praying bigger doesn't mean assuming God will give us everything we request.

Paul himself experienced suffering, imprisonment, and unanswered prayers. He understood that God's power doesn't always mean removing hardship from our lives.

The point is not that God will always answer our prayers in exactly the way we hope. The point is that our prayers should reflect the bigness of the God we worship.

We can trust Him even when the answer is different from what we expected.

We can pray boldly without demanding a particular outcome.

We can ask God to act while still trusting Him with the results.

What Would a Big Prayer Look Like for You?

Maybe there's something you've been afraid to ask God for. Perhaps you've carried a fear for years and need to pray for that fear to lose its grip.

Maybe you need to ask God to make Christ more deeply at home in your heart.

Maybe you need to pray for a deeper experience of Christ's love so that you can live from a place of peace instead of fear.

So ask yourself: What is the big prayer you've stopped praying?

What request feels impossible unless God intervenes?

What would happen if you brought that prayer honestly before Him?

What If We Prayed Bigger Together?

Big prayers aren't only personal. They can also shape an entire church community.

What if we prayed for people experiencing grief, anxiety, illness, or disappointment—that they would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit in their inner being?

What if we prayed that Christ would become so at home among us that people could experience His presence even before they fully understood what we believe?

What if we prayed for God's love to draw generations together?

What if we trusted God with circumstances that seem completely beyond our ability to control?

These aren't small prayers. But we aren't praying to a small God.

Pray Bigger Because God Is Bigger

We don't know what God will do with every prayer. But we know who God is.

He is the God who strengthens us from within.

He is the God whose love is wider, longer, higher, and deeper than we can comprehend.

He is the God who works through His people.

And He is the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

So don't let fear make your prayers smaller.

Don't let disappointment convince you that God is finished working.

Don't allow your limited imagination to become the measure of God's ability.

Pray the big prayer.

Trust the big God.

And leave room for Him to do something far greater than you could have imagined.