He Is Able

A song crossed my mind today as I tried to comfort a soul with the reminder of God’s ability to deliver. In fact, I am singing it in my mind as I compose this meditation. When our children were all home and we had family devotionals, we used to sing this song. The chorus goes like this:

“He is able to deliver thee, He is able to deliver thee;
Though by sin oppressed, Go to Him for rest,
Our God is able to deliver thee.”

This then brought to mind the question our Lord Jesus posited to two blind men, who cried out to Him to have mercy upon them. It is a searching question that we do well to put to ourselves, whenever we approach God with a need.

Matthew 9:28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

“Believe ye that I am able to do this?” That is the question. Our Lord did not ask them if they believed He would do it. He rather asked them if they believed He could do it. The blind men responded by affirming their faith in the Lord’s ability. To this affirmation of faith our Lord responded.

Matthew 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

Faith in His ability to deliver these blind men moved our Lord to actually deliver them. Just believing that God is able to perform has far reaching consequences for good. Whatever darkness, distress, despair, debt, disease, or other d-word you may be experiencing, when you bring it to your Lord, do you believe He is able to deliver you? Even if the Lord does not deliver you in the way you might desire of Him, do you still believe He is able to deliver you?

Consider the example of our father Abraham.

Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Observe that a strong faith is fully persuaded that God is able to perform what He promises, even though the circumstances seem impossible, as they did to Abraham and Sarah. Abraham did not consider his own weakness. He rather focused on what God was able to do. We would all be better off if we focused more on what God is able to do and less on our own weakness.

Let the following verse give you some idea of the extent to which your God is able to deliver you.

Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

Our God is able to do all that we ask or even think. We cannot think of anything beyond God’s ability to perform. He can not only do all that we ask or think, He is able to do above all or beyond everything that we ask or think. He can not only do above all that we ask or think, He is able to do abundantly or exceedingly above all that we ask or think. But He can not only do abundantly above all that we ask or think, He is able to do exceeding or extremely abundantly above all that we ask or think. In other words, God’s ability extends extremely beyond the extremes of anything that we can verbalize or imagine.

Or try this one on for size.

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

That uttermost reaches your most desperate and far-reaching needs for deliverance. No matter how big the problem or weak your ability to deal with it, God is able deliver you. Your problem will never be beyond God’s ability.

So the next time you are in trouble and someone tries to encourage you by pointing you to God’s ability to deliver, do not respond with a sigh, “Yea, yea, I know…….” That sigh is an expression of doubt. Instead, confidently affirm as did these two blind men, “Yea, Lord.” You have not even begun to tap into His ability to save you.

Remember that the Lord responded to the faith of these blind men by saying, “According to your faith be it unto you.” Christ was honoured by their faith in His ability. God deals with us according to our faith. We will miss much in the way of blessing if our faith in God’s ability is weak. If our faith in God’s ability is weak, that indicates that we think God is weak. This kind of unbelief grieves the Spirit of God. Remember the words of the song and recite them with a full persuasion of their truth: “He is able to deliver thee.” Affirm your faith in His ability and then watch Him perform on your behalf!