Glorify the power of God

 
The ending of today’s devotional reading is the beginning of a little more research. It says: “In the divine order, God’s working depends on our cooperation. During His earthly ministry, Jesus could do no mighty works in at least one city because of the people’s unbelief. It was not that He would not, but that He could not. We often think that God will not, when in reality He cannot because of our unbelief.”

I hesitate to agree because this contradicts a bigger picture. Both OT and NT say that no one seeks God. The Bible is clear that apart from grace and God’s mercy, no one would believe and all would have hard hearts against God and no faith. I see it in my own life every time my old nature tries to rise from the dead and listen to my I-wants instead of doing the will of God.

Yes, my part is trusting God, yet even as my trust wavers, God is faithful to accomplish His purposes, even in answering my prayers. The Bible says He is sovereign and omnipotent. What seems impossible to me is easy for Almighty God.

The devotional writer says my part is trusting God to do His part, but I know that even faith is a gift from Him. Some would call that hyper-Calvinism however I have reached the place in my life where I realize my total helplessness and how much I need Jesus for everything I do, even breathing.

My part is saying yes to the faith God gives. A word search for the phrase “would not” gave 144 hits in the ESV. Some of them pose a puzzle. For instance:

Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said… But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. (Exodus 8:19; 10:27)

In most cases, the ‘would nots’ were simple: God told His OT people to do something but they would not obey. Yet verses like this suggest that God did not intervene but used their rebellion for His purposes. Here is another example:

If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death. (1 Samuel 2:25)

Other verses indicate that it was not God who could not but people who would not and in His grace, He did not force the issue:

For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen. (Jeremiah 13:11)

Jesus was able to stop even demons from doing their will, so He had control over their actions:

And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. (Luke 4:41)

Some verses even say that God hardened hearts so that His will would be done:

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” (Romans 11:7–8)

None of the rulers of this age understood this (the secret and hidden wisdom of God), for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:8)

Some wonder why God tells us to just trust Him and then tells us to do impossible things. This is leaving out an important truth: we are not called to do the impossible by ourselves. Our power is in Christ who lives in us. Paul understood it. He said: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)

PRAY: Jesus, You are fully God and fully man — a union that I cannot understand. And then You say I am a human with You living in me — another union very difficult to understand, but You are teaching me the self-me part is crucified yet I still live, but it is You who lives in me… sort of like a living hand in a dead glove. The world (and I) see the glove, but everything that it does is because of the hand that moves it. For this, I am in awe and fully realize why You are the One to be glorified.