Perfect Trust預覽

Perfect Power

Over the last nine days we’ve seen that God is absolutely perfect. He is perfect in love, perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, perfectly just, perfectly wise, perfectly good, perfectly faithful, and the very source of perfect peace. And because He is perfect and without flaw, you can trust Him implicitly, to – without fail – be wise, good, faithful, righteous, just, holy, the provider of true peace, and always driven by an infinite, perfect love for you.

In our final reading I want to point you to God’s perfect power. This unmatched power is what ensures His sovereign rule over everything and His ability to deliver on His promise to care for you, something you can therefore trust without hesitation.

Jesus went out of His way to try and convince us of God’s passionate desire to care for each of us. This loving care is expressed well in Matthew 6:25-34.

Notice that tucked in the midst of this teaching, Jesus calls us out for who we are. People of little faith. He desperately wants you and I to trust Him. And that trust is rooted in His perfect, infinite power.

Why? Because if God is not truly sovereign – if there is somehow a force equal to or greater than His power – then at some point God could fail to deliver on His promise to care for you… and His admonition to fully trust Him would be hollow. After all, if God is perfectly good, but His goodness towards you could be thwarted, then being perfectly good doesn’t really matter.

The perfection of God’s character only has potency to the degree that God is indeed sovereign. Perfect in power. Which He is.

I love the way the verses from Ephesians, quoted above, express the true nature of God’s power. It is an “incomparably great power.” Nothing can compare to it. Nothing. Satan indeed may be incredibly powerful but compared to God’s power it is incomparably less. Jesus is “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion….” Nothing can compare to His power. Nothing.

The Bible expresses this truth in so many ways. For example, Hebrews 1:3 states, "The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Think about that for a moment. ALL THINGS are sustained by the power of His word!

Then there is 2 Corinthians 4:7, which tells us, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” God’s power is “all-surpassing”. It supersedes every power in the universe. It cannot be thwarted by any other power.

But it can be thwarted by something else. And that is your lack of faith. Your unwillingness to trust Him. As Hebrews 11:6 reminds us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

If you read further in this chapter of Hebrews, the writer recounts dozens of those who have gone before us and demonstrated how through faith they accomplished such great things. Your faith and trust in God are the key to living a truly abundant life, because it is through faith and faith alone that the indwelling Spirit of Christ lives fully through you.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul profoundly states, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This truth, that Christ is alive in you, is what Paul calls a “mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations” (Colossians 1:26). It is the most radical of thoughts—that God would be alive in YOU! Right now. In this and every moment. And the natural bent of the indwelling Spirit is to empower you and live through you. It’s not something you need to beg for.

This is why we are admonished to not “quench” the Spirit (I Thessalonians 5:19) or to “grieve” Him (Ephesians 4:30). You quench the power of God to work in your life – you can stop it – simply by not trusting Him. Or you can allow the full, unmatched power of God to work through you as you trust Him. Your choice.

Which brings me to my final point. In Proverbs 3:5-6 we are told, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

This is God’s ultimate desire, for you to trust Him with all your heart. And you can do that because He is perfect. He has a perfect love for you, perfect wisdom to impart to you, He is perfectly faithful to you, and He is perfectly good, holy, righteous, and just, and in Him alone is perfect peace.

RESPOND: Each morning, start your day by reminding yourself of this truth, that God is perfect. Worship Him and thank Him that He is perfect love. Perfectly wise. Perfectly faithful. Perfectly good. Perfectly holy. Perfectly righteous. Perfectly just. Perfect in power. And the source of perfect peace. In fact, do that right now.

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