The Power of God
The Power of God
““If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will by no means believe. And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go. Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.” Then they all said, “Are You then the Son of God?” So He said to them, “You rightly say that I am.” And they said, “What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.””
Luke 22:67-71
There is no greater power in the world, or the universe or anywhere for that matter.
The power of God is something our complex minds will never comprehend. We are not simple-minded creatures who are absent free will or cognition. Our minds are complex. We can complete surgery on the heart, make robots that make cars, build ginormous buildings (I guess that’s actually a word) and we can find a cure for viruses. But we will never, ever be able to create something out of nothing.
Yet every single day people turn to everything else the world has to offer to fill their knowledge, satisfy their desires and to dull their pains. We would rather watch a two-hour action packed movie than study the word of God. We’d rather continue to live in sin, than to grow closer to God. We will justify all of our time, other than our time with God.
People will continue to want more things, have more money and fill more time. I’m so guilty of the latter. I have to always keep moving. I don’t like to sit still. And every second I’m awake, has to be filled with doing something. It drives my wife crazy, to the point of not being able to sleep. I know someone else who it drives crazy as well.
We constantly do it. Some of us can’t sit still, others are always tired, there are poor planners and hustlers and liars. The world is made up of every personality type you could possibly imagine - I’ve only listed a few.
There are people who are good people and there are people who are bad. There are people who believe themselves to be good who are bad and vice versus.
None are as powerful or will ever be as good as God. God is love. God is good.
The power of God is everywhere, if we choose to see it. It’s in the prayer we think was never answered. It’s in the losing game, the person that wouldn’t return our calls, the forgotten keys - the power of God is everywhere. We’ve trained ourselves to think that the things we didn’t get that we wanted had nothing to do with God. Or we only go to Him when we need or want something. God is everywhere - even in the middle of the things that happen that we think are bad. Or even when we never notice. God is there.
This is the power of God. And we have such a hard time seeing it. And the reason we have such a hard time seeing it, is because we are not looking, to Him. Either we aren’t praying to God for His will - or we haven’t spent enough time with Him to recognize what the power of God is.
We have become a people of self-absorption and selfishness. We love ourselves. We love our things and we love our time. We think we are the answer. We think when something goes well, we did it. And when it didn’t, it’s someone else’s fault. We think we are that smart.
God is infinite. His mercy, love and grace is infinite. And He has all the time ever imaginable. He could make everything last forever or He could end it all right now, faster or slower than we could ever fathom. Everything God has will last forever. It will never end.
This is the power of God.
So why do we try to bend it and reshape it?
And why do we go a lifetime without ever trying to understand it? There are so many people in the world who never pray, yet they say they are Christians. And there are people everywhere who have never opened a Bible - who go to church. You can read a book and know what it’s about - but you may never understand why it was written. Do you even know why you are here?
Our creator - God, who has created everything by word and thought - is the single most powerful existence we could ever imagine - so why do we ignore Him?
Maybe it’s because we don’t want to know what He really has to say. I’ve watched over the past three years as I’ve read my Bible intently - I’ve watched and listened to sermons where men bend the word of God. I’ve watched as people who could recite many many verses, live a life separate from their readings. And I’ve watched amazing stories of faith grow in the least expecting ways. I have watched God at work. And it isn’t always for someone’s good. I’ve watched people struggle, experience loss and go through pain. And I’ve watched God fix people, provide for people and to bless people.
We like good stories. We like happy endings. We love the love story. And sometimes, that isn’t how God works. God will remove things from our life. He will put us somewhere we don’t want to be. He will make the comfortable, uncomfortable. This is the power of God.
In order to understand the power of God, we must accept it. Just as the disciples did as Jesus explained who He was in the opening verses above. They accepted it. They said to Jesus - “What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.” This is faith. And this, is the power of God.
The Bible is full of knowledge and understanding of the power of God. We must learn to fear God, to love Him and to be obedient to Him.
Jesus attempted to tell the disciples about the power of God. He taught and preached the power of God. He taught about everlasting life and faith. And he talked about love through obedience and submission.
If you truly want to understand the power of God you must be in prayer with Him and reading your Bible. As elementary as this sounds, this is the only way. You must have a hunger for it. You must learn to feed yourself. And you must continue to build on the strength of God. Being fed once or twice a week will make you weak. You must feed your hunger for God every day, many times.
You must be in communion with God always, either through prayer or thought. Our relationship with God only grows stronger, if it is growing. We should be sharing our love for God with others. And when we find others that are hungry we should be helping them grow as well. Evangelism and discipleship should be important to everyone who desires to grow closer to God. Find someone to disciple who will help you grow as you help them grow closer to the Lord.
I pray that these devotions are an encouragement to you to read your Bible and to grow your prayer life.
Have a blessed day.
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
I Corinthians 2:1-5
“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.””
I Corinthians 1:27-31