August 17 I Tuesday

Psalms 97-99

Romans 16

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” —Isaiah 55:8-9

There are essentially five incommunicable attributes of God. One of them is the omnipotence of God, which means God is all-powerful and there is no limit to His power. We see the power of God throughout Scripture. From the very beginning of the Bible, we are told, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Then all the way in the end, with the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22 concludes with an image of the throne of God and of the Lamb, where the throne represents power, sovereignty and authority. 

      Yet, when we think of the omnipotence of God, we may easily fall into a misconceived notion that the omnipotence of God is an undisciplined attribute. We may argue everything that happens is the will of God because He is omnipotent. In other words, we think of God’s omnipotence as an undisciplined attribute, where God could snap His fingers and do things. For example, our praying is usually an appeal to God’s omnipotence as we cry out in situations that look impossible and say, “God intervene!” Consequently, when things take what seems their natural course and it seems like God does not intervene, we feel justified in accusing God of inaction, saying, “Why didn’t You do something?” Likewise, as we look at circumstances and events of our present days, like the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters where millions of people have lost their lives, we ask God, “Why in the world was this allowed to happen?”

      Some of us may even go to the extent of making the argument that God cannot be all-powerful, and at the same time, be all-loving. Because if God is all-powerful, then the very existence of suffering, sadness and tragedy in the world indicates that He is not loving. Yet, if God is all-loving and desires the best for us all the time, then He is obviously not all-powerful, because He seems unable to prevent these destructive things from taking place. Thus concluding, God cannot be all-powerful and all-loving, which raises the question, “What on earth is God doing?”

      What we fail to recognize in this misconceived notion of God is that it relegates Him to being a genie with powers to do whatever we command, and we fail to acknowledge the sovereignty of God. This notion places us above the omnipotent God, as we try to confine Him to our own limited perspective. As we submit to the omnipotence of God, we rest in the knowledge that God is God and He is in control.

Prayer: Dear All-Powerful God, You are God and I am not. Even in the good and the bad moments of my life, I will choose to praise You! Thank You, Lord.