Powerful and Able

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I never need wonder about His ability to do anything.  Even so, sometimes the temptation presents itself!  The morning after Daniel was thrown into a den of ravenous lions, King Darius stood at the mouth of the den and called out in Daniel 6:20:  "...Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?"  Daniel answered in the affirmative.  God had sent an angel to shut the mouth of the lions and they could not harm him.  Perhaps a skeptic might claim the lions weren't hungry after all.  Daniel 6:24 clear this up immediately:  "And the king gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions--them, their children, and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den."

When we consider the ferocity of a lion, it is nothing compared to the power and ability of God.  Isaiah 40:10-12 says, "Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. ¹¹ He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young. ¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?"  Our earth is located in the Milky Way galaxy, just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies observed in the heavens.  It is estimated to be 100,000 million light years across.  Light moves at the speed of about 186,000 miles per second (or 300,000,00 meters per second!), and a light year is the distance light travels in a whole year at that unimaginable speed.  I have read the observable universe is around 46 billion light years in diameter, give or take.  God says that gargantuan expanse is  measured by the span of His hand, the distance from a man's finger to thumb with an open palm!

I recently read a National Geographic article titled, "Water in Quasar could fill Earth's oceans 100 trillion times."  To me, that is a remarkable statement in itself.  But how much more mind-blowing is it that God measures the waters "in the hollow of His hand."  How astounding is the ability and power of God!  If ours is the God who made and sustains all things, breathed into man a living soul, speaks the words of life, and holds the keys to Hell and Death, of what should we be afraid?  He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7).

In light of God's power and grace, take heart in the words of Isaiah 40:28-31:  "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, ³¹ but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  God is all power, and His ability is limitless.

Do you believe this?