by Kim Cimuchowski
Do you ever think about the power of God, how great and awesome it truly is? Every once in a while, I find myself contemplating His amazing power and love. The verses in Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV resonate in my mind.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on Earth derives its name. I pray, that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of His love, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
When I think of God’s power, I usually think of nature: hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, thunder or lighting. Maybe the ocean and how strong the current is, or the solar system and how vast it is, and how little we know about it. These are all wonders that make me think; how can we, being so small and so helpless, comprehend the length, width, height and depth of His love? And maybe even harder a question is, how can we access this power like scripture tells us?
I was recently teaching the Lord’s Lab class that we now have on Wednesday night for children. We were looking at God’s power and how we have access to it. One of the ways in which we are told that we can access God’s power is through prayer. We took a Diet Coke and put a few Mentos candies in it and the reaction was spectacular. The soda mixed with the surface area of the candy, created a physical reaction that shot the soda about 10 feet up in the air. Of course, the children all enjoyed the experiment, but the lesson that we were learning is for everyone.
That power was bottled up, but was not released until it came in contact with the candy. While God’s power isn’t bottled up, it can be accessed the same way. God’s power explodes in us and through us when we access it. We are fortunate enough to be able to access His power through prayer. Scripture tells us that we have God’s power at our finger tips. Mark 11:24 NIV says “24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV) says something similar. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
I am amazed that an all-powerful God cares so deeply about you and me that He offers us access to His power. All we have to do is pray to Him and believe that He’s already answered us. If He created this world and keeps it all in motion as scripture tells us, Colossians 1:17, "then He can powerfully and effectively answer our prayers and yearnings. He may answer differently than how we imagined him to, but He still answers."
Here are some more verses about God’s power and prayer that may encourage you this week.