One day after searching through my wardrobe, I casually remarked to my wife that I needed some dresses. The discussion ended there, and it did not even make it to my prayer list that period. Shortly afterwards, the Reverend Bassey Daniel of Dominion High Commission, Calabar brought me two suits. That motivated me to go to a shop to pick a shirt to match. The shop owner was too eager to goad me to buying more than I had purposed. He offered me three shirts which he thought would be nice on me. I turned them down because I didn’t bargain for them. A gentleman who was in the shop before me said, “Pastor, go with the three shirts; I will pay for them”.

Our thoughts are sometimes as powerful as formal prayer, if not more… There is a divine flow into our lives when we learn to harmonise our thoughts in line with God’s word and all that is noble.

That encounter left me with vital scriptural lessons. First, it brought to light the verity of our text. Speaking about God, the psalmist said “you understand my thoughts afar off”. While I was just thinking out loud to my wife about a need, God understood. Secondly, it is not only what we request formally in prayer that God grants. God does far more. Our thoughts are sometimes as powerful as formal prayer, if not more. Thought matters; otherwise, Jesus would not have on several occasions challenged the people who thought wrongly. There is a divine flow into our lives when we learn to harmonise our thoughts in line with God’s word and all that is noble. The final lesson is this: God can surpass our expectations as well as prayer. If God blesses us only to the extent of our prayers, many believers would be destitute. The reason is that we are not as instant in prayer as the Bible enjoins us to do. While I was rooting for one shirt, I got three at no personal cost. God is always more than enough!