If We Really Believed in the Power of God

We would come to him in prayer first

If we really believed God is omnipotent, we would come to Him in prayer first, not as a last resort after having tried every other means and failed. 

We would forsake trusting in the idols of our day and trust in Him. 

We would humbly acknowledge that all the blessings we have are a gift of His grace and the result of the working of His power. 

Our prayers would be filled with praise and thanksgiving, seeing God as the Source of every blessing.

We would be filled with faith and hope, knowing that no purpose of God can be thwarted (2 Chronicles 20:6) and that every promise God has made will be fulfilled, in His time, and exactly as He has promised.

We would not give so much credit to Satan

If we really understood the power of God, we would not give so much credit to Satan. 

We would not look at Satan as though he and God were closely matched rivals who have battled for centuries. 

We would not dare suppose that in the end God will barely defeat this one who is our deadly foe. 

We would realize that God is the Creator and Satan is but a creature. 

We would know that God’s power is infinite, while Satan’s is finite. 

We would not minimize Satan’s power, but neither would we overstate his power. 

God is not battling with Satan with the hope of defeating him: Satan is already a defeated foe, whose final demise is certain (John 12:31; 16:11; Luke 10:18). In the meantime, God is using Satan and his rebellion to achieve His purposes (see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

We would not believe the lies of the “good-life gospeleers”

If we really understood and believed in the power of God, we would not believe the lies of the “good-life gospeleers,” those hucksters who line their own pockets by assuring donors that God is standing by with all His power, eager to do their bidding. They lay claim on God’s power by “faith,” by claiming certain possessions like money and healing. “God doesn’t want us to suffer,” they say, “but to prosper.” If they really believed in God’s power, they would know God’s power can just as well sustain us through suffering and affliction as it can deliver us from suffering and affliction. They refuse to accept that God often works through suffering to sustain and purify the saints and to demonstrate His grace and power to a lost and dying world (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

We would not be so reluctant to obey

If we really believed in the power of God, we would not be so reluctant to obey those commands of God which seem to leave us vulnerable (like, “sell your possessions and give to the poor,” or see 1 Corinthians 7:29-30 for a more generalized version). 

We would not excuse ourselves from obeying the “impossible” commands like “love your enemy.” 

We would live our lives much more dangerously if we really believed God is omnipotent.

[I pray that] the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. [These are] in accordance with the working of the strength of His might . . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God..  (Ephesians 1:18-19; 3:16-19).

originally published on 6/16/2009