To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works and us, to him the glory.

Ephesians 3:20–21

Our God, as the song says, is an awesome God. There is nothing- literally nothing – that is impossible with him. As we look through the annals of Scripture, we see God doing many amazing things. He directed Noah to build an ark and then sent a worldwide flood to judge the earth. He promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and he produced the first child of that promise from the aged couple far past their prime. God directed Gideon to get rid of almost all his men before they went into battle against over whelming odds. He sent fire from Heaven to burn up the sacrifice and moat to reveal Himself to Elijah and rebuke the prophets of Baal.

The gospels give us volumes of miracles. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed lepers and changed hearts over and over again. Wherever he went, miracles followed Him.

But what about now, and what about you and me? Does that still work in the same way? God is still in the business of revealing his love and power. Sometimes He works physical miracles, but more often, He works the miracle of redemption in individuals’ hearts and the miracle of restoration in broken relationships. God‘s power and purpose haven’t changed. He still can and will do far more than we can ask or think.

Zig Ziglar

“Abraham Maslow observed that the story of the human race is men and women selling themselves short. The story of too many Christians is selling God short”.

Ike Reighard

“ If a man can take moldy bread and make penicillin, imagine what God can do with you”.

Zig Ziglar

Have you ever considered the fact that God has no limits? No limit to His power, no limit to His knowledge, no limit with His love and grace, unlimited in His mercy toward us. Yet far too often we live as though the Creator of all things is limited in His ability to manage them. We read in the Bible that God created all things by simply speaking a word. We also read that He created Adam by scooping up a handful of clay and lovingly molding that clay in the image of God. We read that God took from that man a rib and created the woman Eve. Scripture tells us that God made a garden with every thing good. In the garden there was no sickness, disease, trouble or death. Only after sin entered into the picture did those things come to dog the steps of humanity.

Over time it seems that our image of God has diminished until most think of Him as though He has become powerless and for the most part disengaged with human affairs. We reason that if God has placed us here on earth, given us free choice, and made us keepers of the planet, then it’s up to us to fix everything that’s wrong.

We turn frequently to those we perceive to be wise, strong, capable when we are faced with some situation beyond our personal capacity. We often use God as our last resort as though we are grasping for straws without much hope or expectation that things will change.

Oh that we could view God as He really is- the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

“For He has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption [because of His sacrifice, resulting in] the forgiveness of our sins [and the cancellation of sins’ penalty]. He is the exact living image [the essential manifestation] of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible], the firstborn [the preeminent one, the sovereign, and the originator] of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.] He is also the head [the life-source and leader] of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will occupy the first place [He will stand supreme and be preeminent] in everything. For it pleased the Father for all the fullness [of deity—the sum total of His essence, all His perfection, powers, and attributes] to dwell [permanently] in Him (the Son), and through [the intervention of] the Son to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace [with believers] through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were at one time estranged and alienated and hostile-minded [toward Him], participating in evil things, yet Christ has now reconciled you [to God] in His physical body through death, in order to present you before the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach—“

Colossians 1:13-22

Throughout the Bible God made Himself known to humanity in incredible displays of His majesty and glory. We read that He visited with Abraham and explained to him that because He was God, age had no power over his body and Sarah’s body. He was going to give them a son in their old age because they believed His promise. God went even farther and through a vision affirmed that promise with a smoking lamp standing in between the halves of the sacrificial animals. Symbolically the glory of God-His very presence stood in a river of blood and declared His promises were true. A little over two thousand years ago the Holy Spirit stood in the river of blood that flowed from Calvary-the blood of the crucified Christ- and declared the promises of God were so. And every promise of God hangs on the person of God Himself and not on us. When we believe that God is everything the Bible says He is then we begin to receive the reality of those promises.

In another story God showed Gideon that when He chose to give victory to the people of God, He didn’t need a whole bunch of people- just a few that believed. What else could we say about a God who parted seas and rivers and walked on the water of the sea in the middle of a storm.? What can we say about a God who touched a pebble from a sling in such a way that a giant fell? Or how about a God who sent fire from heaven to consume a sacrifice and then kept fire from harming His servants in the midst of a fiery furnace? What more could we say about a God who clothed Himself in flesh, healed lepers with an incurable disease, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk and the dumb speak, or called a man back from the grave after he had been dead four days and then to die Himself and raise from the dead three days later?

That’s the true picture of our God. Can you and I experience those same things in this modern day of human created miracles? A thousand times yes! Why? Because God is the great I Am who is always the same. We may change how we view Him but our view doesn’t change Him or who He is.

“For I am the Lord, I do not change [but remain faithful to My covenant with you]; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, have not come to an end.

Malachi 3:6

Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

I pray today that we will grasp and hold on to the fact that we are the children of the most powerful, gracious, caring Being in the universe who delights in amazing His children with gifts beyond imagination.

Dr. John Thompson