God is All Powerful

By Marcie Dennis

Psalm 33:6-9 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

God is Omnipotent

The sequel to God is omniscient is that God is omnipotent. Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited or very great power. In God’s case, it is unlimited. I’m having flashbacks to the scene in Aladdin where Jafar becomes a genie and he thinks he has ultimate cosmic power, but he's got an itty-bitty living space. He doesn't have the power to free himself. Anybody else remember that?

God created the universes and galaxies and every good detail inside of them, but he is not bound by anything. Just pick up a children’s book on the solar systems or find a YouTube video on the expanses and you’ll be blown away by it all.

While there are numerous stories in the Bible depicting God’s power, one of my favorites is the story of how Elijah put Baal & his prophets to the test and, of course, they flopped while God showed up in an impressively powerful way. Read 1 Kings 18:21-39 for the full story but let me summarize it for you really quick.

Elijah was a faithful prophet of God who was currently trying to turn the kingdom of Israel back to God from their evil ways of worshipping Baal. He challenged their prophets in front of the people to prove which God was real. The prophets agreed to his proposal to test their gods.

The prophets of Baal went first. They built an altar, had a bull to sacrifice and called upon their god. From morning till noon, they danced, sang, prayed for him to light the altar and nothing happened. At noon, Elijah taunted them saying maybe they needed to be louder.

So they were. They also cut and stabbed their own bodies until they bled (as was their custom). They continued until evening and still nothing happened to their altar.

Then it was Elijah’s turn. He built God’s altar anew with twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel and he dug a trench around it. He cut the bull into pieces and laid it on some wood atop the altar. He then had the people fill four large jugs of water and pour them over the altar, they did this three times. The water flowed over everything, soaking it and filling the trench.

Then Elijah prayed aloud for God to show up and be known to these people.

And wouldn’t you know it, the fire from Heaven came down and torched the offering, the wood and all the water in the trench until it was gone!

Boom! Mic drop!

The people all believed in God because of his mighty display of power.

God’s Power in my Life

Now, I’ve never had a moment with raw power displayed in my life like that, but I have seen it in everyday miracles and special moments. One instance of this was when God orchestrated things so that we could buy our first home and renovate it! For us, that was a huge feat that wouldn’t have happened without God making things fall into place for us.

We were living with my mother-in-law at the time since we had moved back into town before our lease was up in Jacksonville. Three weeks later our Covid shut-down began and we ended up living with her for 18 months.

While there, we were searching for a home of our own. Like many people, we wanted to own our own space for numerous reasons, but we simply didn’t have the financing available to make it happen. This was especially difficult in such an expensive area as where God had placed us. We felt helpless to make anything happen.

One day though, the house across the street became available. My mother-in-law had a conversation with the people who needed to sell the house and put our name in as interested buyers.

A family friend who flipped houses, was a realtor & broker decided he liked us and wanted to help us get started with our first home. He helped us negotiate a good deal on the price of the house that would need to be fully gutted. He also offered to help us finance the renovation. He even gave us pointers and contacts in the industry we could price out to complete a renovation.

One of the biggest feats that God orchestrated was working in the sellers of the house. Nine dysfunctional siblings spread out all over the place came to an agreement to sell us the house at a good price per our offer. That took about two weeks of anxiously waiting to get approved.

Once we had that and finally closed just before the year ended, we were ready to begin the design & demo phase! Figuring out what we wanted to do and what we could do was another feat with so many options & opinions around us.

And I must say, HGTV is falsely portraying how easy it is to demo anything! Punching holes through walls wasn’t happening unless you wanted a broken hand. You couldn’t really just rip drywall down or run through walls. And it certainly doesn’t always portray the size of the crew needed for such a quick demo!

And while there were fun moments, it was exhausting work. We did it mostly by ourselves while both working full time jobs, raising two rambunctious toddlers, and serving in ministry at church. It was a lot on our plates.

After 8 months of hard labor and more decisions that I’d realized I would have to make about my home, it was complete and we could finally move it!

It was a crazy new experience and I’m so grateful we accomplished it. But I have to say, without the power of God at work in every aspect of this process, it wouldn’t have happened at all.

Thank you, God, for my beautiful & renovated home!

God has the Power to Restore

One of the biggest ways we see God's power in our lives today is when he restores what we thought was a hopeless situation.

Go read the stories of Jacob, Abraham, Mary, Job, Nehemiah, Joseph, David, Rahab, Esther, Moses, Paul and see how in their lives God restored each of them & their situations. There's so many more all through the Bible because God is constantly restoring his people.

God has redeemed numerous situations in my life that I couldn't see a solution to, one of them being how would we ever buy our first home? God also restored my heart after my father died and from that, my relationship with my mother was redeemed.

God provided me enough money on days when I didn't think I'd have enough for the basics and a bed to sleep in when I didn't have a home. He even brought me jobs when I was at the end of my rope and money.

God has brought about everything good in my life and restored every hard season I have been through. I am so grateful to know him and know to pursue him for my rescue, that has made all the difference in my life.

We’ll talk further about God as a healer in a specific devotional for those of you who are in a season that is not yet restored. My word of hope to you today friend is remember God loves you deeply and he’ll not leave you high and dry. It may feel like it today, but your story isn’t finished yet.

I’ll recommend what I do in seasons of waiting for God to move. Get in your car, shower or somewhere private and listen to Waymaker by Leeland. Then you can cry, shout at God, express your despair & need for rescue. You can be in stillness and let the truth of the words soak in and give you hope. You can sing it at the top of your lungs and cry some more as you repeat the bridge:

“Even when I don’t see it, you’re working, even when I don’t feel it, you’re working. You never stop, you never stop working. You never stop, you never stop working.”

This truth brings me to my knees every time as I think of the power God is working out behind the scenes as he lines up my restoration.

And can I tell you, He hasn’t failed me once.

Conclusion:

Ladies, can I just say God, in all of his infinite wisdom, power and presence, he has Never failed me! Not once! I’ve let him down, he hasn’t done what I wanted, but he has never ultimately failed me.

He has the power to create the universe, he has the power to send down fire from Heaven, he has the power to heal your brokenness and provide housing. He has infinite power and he’s working it out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:58).

If you’re struggling in a season where you cannot understand why God isn’t using his power to instantly fix your situation, I encourage you to hold on. Trust he is working in the background, trust he cares so deeply for you that he won’t leave you hanging.

Prayer:

Yahweh,

You are omnipotent and loving. We know that you are working all things out for our good and your glory and we can trust in that truth. We are thankful for all the ways that you’ve worked in our lives so far. We ask that you continue to work and are thankful that you will be faithful to do so. Heal us of our hurts, our doubts, our tough situations Lord. Show us how you love us in this moment as we wait expectantly for you to move.

______________

Hey sweet lady, we want to take a quick minute to guide your next steps with the scripture and application portion. We believe that in order to truly grow closer to God, we need to spend time dwelling on what he’s trying to teach us and not rush through it. We encourage you to spend a full week dwelling on this devotional and all it has to offer you. That means you can save some of the scripture passages for another day or re-read them in the week. We also encourage you to take your time with the application portion. You can sit in each prompt until you feel God revealing his truths to you. Don’t rush, take time to truly get to know him better by sitting in what he’s trying to teach you this week. That's where your faith will grow.

Scripture for Deeper Study:

· Psalm 33:6-9

· Psalm 147

· Job 38-41

· 1 Kings 18:21-39

Application:

· Journal how thoughts of God’s amazing power speak to you.

· Journal how you’ve seen evidence of God’s power in your life.

· Share with God where you’re currently struggling and needing restoration in your life. He’s sitting and listening, he’s there with you in the pain. He will provide the comfort and strength you need until the restoration comes.