Who is this God to whom your prayers ascend? Belief in what God can do will give you strength and more confidence in your prayer life. When unbelief takes control, it is because you have forgotten who God is.
Here are four characteristics of God:
1) His omnipotence – He is all-powerful,
2) His omniscience – He is all-knowing,
3) His omnipresence – He is all-present, and
4) He is love – all the time.
Only God
Understand that God’s characteristics can only be ascribed to Him. For example,
- He has no beginning and no end (Revelation 21:6)
- He is grace and truth (John 1:14)
- He is eternal (Deuteronomy 33:27)
- He is faithful (I Corinthians 10:13)
God doesn’t have these attributes some of the time; rather, the distinctiveness of Him is that He is ALL of these things ALL of the time.
God’s omnipotence
“And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude…saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” (Revelation 19:6 – KJV) Used only once, omnipotent is from the Latin omni, meaning “all,” and potent, meaning “able to do and to have power.” Thus omnipotent means “able to do all and have all power.” In other words, God who is omnipotent has all the power there is!
“When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty’.” (Genesis 17:1) An Anglo-Saxon word having the same meaning as omnipotent, Almighty – used only to describe God – means to have limitless and absolute plentitude of power.
Visible signs of His invisible power
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” (Romans 1:20) Though skeptics will try to tell you otherwise, discoveries about the amazing complexity and purposeful design of the universe should lead you to better appreciate the infinite wisdom and power of God. Creation testifies to an all-powerful hand that holds all things together. (Hebrews 1:3)
Source of all power
In Scripture, David wrote, “Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God.” (Psalm 62:11) God is the source and His power is equal to or greater than all the power there is. Unlike a battery that will run down, God’s power never is diminished. He can give power to angels, to His redeemed followers, the seas or the mountains, but never has any less than when He started.
Personal God
Yet God Almighty is your Heavenly Father (Luke 11:2), eager to bestow upon you the warmth and intimacy of a loving father’s care. He listens to your prayers (Matthew 18:19). You may strain at a task, but, Believer, the Almighty rides on the wings of the wind (Psalm 104:3) just as easily as He lifts a sparrow to its nest. Nothing is too hard for Him.
Yours for the asking
One thing is clear. Lacking trust in the Almighty closes off life’s possibilities. You have only to look at Abraham who “did not weaken in faith…but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:19-21) When you trust in the Lord, you open up your future to a full experience of God’s power in and through you (Matthew 17:20). All things are possible to the one who believes (Matthew 19:26). Just ask.
Dire times
In these perilous times in this nation – characterized by a seemingly lack of direction of its leaders and danger surrounding the troops around the world – pray for divine direction and courage to act with power from God. Believe in the One who is able and draw your strength from Him.
For further study: Encouraging words
- II Chronicles 20:1-15 and II Chronicles 32:1-8; 20-22
- Nehemiah 9:5-12;18-21
- Psalm 18:1-19; 28-33
- Matthew 6:25-34 and Matthew 14:22-33
- Hebrews 11:1-12:2
Jeana Kamp, presidential prayer team author, is a devotional and teaching article writer whose desire for her writing is that the love of God will be evident to each reader.