ICS Daily Devotions
God Is Able!
Matthew 19:26 (NKJV) But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible.”
The name of God, I AM, expresses His self-existence and the unchangeableness of His character. He transcends the past, the present and the future. He has always been, He is and He will always be. The great I AM is the inexhaustible God. He has divine sufficiency.
It is very normal to have a struggle between doubt and faith. We tend to rationalize away the power of God because our brain is not able to comprehend it. We have finite mind, and therefore, we can only overcome this limitation by the renewal of the mind and to take God’s promise by faith from the heart. If we have been asked to do something great for the Lord that’s beyond us just like Moses and Abraham, then we really need to meditate that God is Able in order for us to keep the peace of God in our heart and mind when the situation is contrary to what we are believing, especially when “curve balls” are thrown at us periodically.
Jeremiah 32:27 (NKJV) “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?
Likewise, God asked Jeremiah to buy a field from his cousin during a time where King Nebuchadnezzar with his great armies, and their fearsome reputation for cruelty, was right outside the walls. The city was about to fall. It was definitely a wrong time to buy the field or property. Jeremiah went on to pay for the field, signed the title deed in the presence of witnesses and sealed the deal. Nobody knew how long Israel would be under the control of King Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah had to have faith that God is able to restore the Kingdom to the nation of Israel. Jeremiah had to strengthen his faith in God and God assured him that there was nothing too difficult for Him. Jeremiah had to believe that God is able to do the restoration in His time. Jeremiah had time and again witnessed God’s word coming to pass during his ministry as a prophet to Israel. God assured Jeremiah that He is able! God is able to bring to pass whatever He had promised despite of the conquest of King Nebuchadnezzar. God is still fulfilling His promises to Israel till today!
2 Corinthians 9:8 (Amp) And God is able to make all grace [every favor and earthly blessing] come in abundance to you, so that you may always [under all circumstances, regardless of the need] have complete sufficiency in everything [being completely self-sufficient in Him], and have an abundance for every good work and act of charity.
In this passage, the people of Corinth have given sacrificially through the free willed offering to help the church in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul was encouraging them that God is able to give them grace and favor to have sufficiency in very situation to continue giving. Paul was saying to them that God is able to bless and multiply the seed that they had sown to them so that they would continue to excel in their giving. God is able! God is able to multiply and supply the money that we have sown so that we can continue to give to good works.
Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
God has revealed to the Apostles that the Gentiles are not excluded from His plan of salvation though there were once foreign to the covenant of promise. It is God’s desire that we learn to understand the length, the breath, and the depth of God’s love for us. We are to know that HE IS ABLE to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think. We can be strengthened in the inner man through the power that works in us, which is the power of the resurrection. Therefore, we can have faith in the Word that God’s grace is able to strengthen our hearts or inner man though we are hard pressed on every side! He is able to infuse His grace into our heart to strengthen us to give us grace for life. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ever ask or imagine!
Sermon series: Meditating on the Names of God
