The power of God is incomprehensible to
man.In Jeremiah 32:17, the Scripture
says, "Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have
made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched
arm! Nothing is too difficult for
You."Indeed, there is nothing God
cannot do other than that which is contrary to His holy nature, such as lying
or being tempted by evil (Heb. 6:18; Jas. 1:13).God has all power over all things, and His
will and authority rule over all.
Christ, who is the Son of God, shares
this great power with His Father.In
John 5:19, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of
Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the
Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He told His
apostles, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matt.
28:18).Christ now reigns from heaven
and will continue to do so until He has put all His enemies under His feet, and
"when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be
subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in
all" (1Cor. 15:25-28).
If nothing is too difficult for God, and
if Christ has all authority, then why is there sin in the world?Why is there suffering, hardship, and
death?Why do we have to struggle to
survive?Why doesn't God simply give us
eternal life now, take away all difficulties, and permanently satisfy all of
our needs?
The answer to all these questions is
found in Hebrews 11:6, which says, "And without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a
rewarder of those who seek Him."Every
opportunity for us to exercise faith is an opportunity to please God and gain
His reward, but it is also an opportunity for sin.Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve were
unfaithful and did not believe God, who said that they would die for eating the
forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:1-6).Ever since
then, the wages of sin have affected this world with suffering, hardship, and
death (Rom. 6:23a).Our struggles in
this world are opportunities to overcome sin and its effects through faith in
Christ.If we do so, then God will give
us His reward of eternal life, take away our difficulties, and satisfy our
needs forever.
To reach God's glorious reward, we must
please Him, and that is impossible without faith."Now faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1).The assurance and conviction that are the
substance of faith must be manifested in works or deeds.All of the people described in Hebrews 11
acted on faith and proved their belief through what they did.None of them were sinless, but all of them
were justified because of their faithful actions.Likewise, if we have genuine faith, then we
must demonstrate it by our deeds.Otherwise, our faith is dead, "for just as the body without the spirit
is dead, so also faith without works is dead" (Jas. 2:26).
For this reason, the word of God places
a heavy emphasis on the necessity of acting on faith.What we do matters as much as what we
believe.The word of God teaches us both
what to believe and what to do, and the two are inseparable.A person cannot truly believe God's word
unless he acts upon it.For this reason,
James 1:22 says, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely
hearers who delude themselves."Those
who merely hear God's word but do not become doers of it are self-deluded
because they think they are faithful when they are not.Simply knowing the right thing to do is not
the same as doing it."Therefore, to one
who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin" (Jas.
4:17).
Therefore, let us be doers of God's word
so that we may have faith to please Him.The impetus in on us; we must act.Like the apostle Paul, our mantra must be, "I can do all things through
Him who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13).Notice that Paul received strength from Christ, but he was the one who
had to act.Indeed, God will not do our
work for us.He will equip us with the
strength to succeed, but He requires us to provide our own effort.Just as God brought Israel to the doorstep of
the promised land and then required them to go in and conquer it, so also He
brings us to our own opportunities for faith and expects us to act.Will we prove ourselves faithful and please
God?
