“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” – Ephesians 3:20-21

Really? Are you sure? I have a big imagination, and I’m capable of some large requests. Isn’t this right up there with Jesus’ promise to toss mountains in the sea or the Apostle John’s promise that we can ask for anything in Jesus’ name and we will get it? It sounds great on the surface and makes excellent fodder for teenage devotional talks around a campfire, but it’s not literally true, right? Isn’t this religious hyperbole or poetic speech, or is God not only able but willing to do more than we can ask or imagine? What are all the qualifications around this? Is this one of those things that applied in the first century but no longer applies today?

I understand our resistance to taking Paul’s words too seriously. Why set ourselves up for disappointment? Most of us have been part of groups who dreamed big and set inspiring visions that produced nothing like what we imagined. We’ve even grown cynical about vision processes because of experiences that made us doubt that they matter, especially in religious spaces. I get it. I’ve been there. I struggle at times to have faith in faith.

And yet, I’m here claiming that these verses are true. God’s dreams are bigger than ours, and his work is not bounded by our imagination. His time frame is not ours, either, and when he delivers on his promises, we often find it looks very different from what we imagined. Just as Jesus did not look like what Israel had envisioned for their Messiah, God’s power produces not only more than we imagine, but different from what we imagine. So, when it happens, we may miss it because we are looking for the wrong thing.

This matters greatly to us this year at MRN because 2023 is the 25th year of our existence. A quarter century is enough time to compare what we are with what our founders thought they were creating. I have repeatedly heard from our early leaders a sense of thanks and awe that God has done far more with this ministry than they asked or imagined. It also has developed into something different from what they imagined while staying true to the original purpose.

For example, 25 years ago and more, as MRN was being imagined and formed, no one would have dreamed that we would be seeing Muslim background people coming to Jesus in large numbers, and much of it in Europe of all places. Nor would anyone have imagined a team of workers from Cuba going to work with Muslim people in North Africa. They would never have imagined dozens of churches working collaboratively to support teams of teams of workers in a large initiative to specific regions of the world. It would have likely been a surprise to our founders to see the level of connection MRN now has with African-American churches, the work we are doing to bring greater unity to the church across racial lines in the U.S., and how all of this is leading to empowering partnerships between African and African American churches. And there was probably no idea about the way we could advance global leadership development online all over the world or on the scale we do routinely now.

I could go on and on but will save more for later. This year, we will be gathering up stories of God’s amazing work to remind ourselves that God’s power is still as great as ever, and we are still his instruments in his mission to redeem and restore all things in heaven and on earth.

I’ve heard Andy Stanley say that most of us overestimate what we can accomplish in a year but underestimate what we can achieve in five years. That is even more true for what God can do through us in a short time frame versus an extended time frame. It usually takes longer than we expect to make an impact in international ministries, but if we are faithful to work on God’s timing, the impact over longer periods of time often exceeds our dreams and plans.

This year, our theme at MRN is “Immeasurably More.” We want to give glory to God for what he has already done and trust him to do far more than we can possibly plan or expect over another quarter century.