You Can't See With Your Eyes Shut - Part Three

**adapted from a sermon by Chad Whitmore (minister of Franklin Avenue Christian Church, Des Moines, Iowa).

Motivating scripture: Ephesians 1:18-19 NIV
"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength,"

Introduction

As Christians our actions in our relationship with God are often done out of "habituation." This means that we get caught up in the motions of things and want them to be the same as they have always been. We want to go to the same kind of church service, we listen to the same type of sermons, we pray the same prayer at the same time every day and not many other times, just to name a few. We usually have no problem with accepting that God is all powerful but do we think enough about how God feels about us? For me, this was one of those slight changes in thinking that was really profound to me because I realized I didn't often think of how God truly feels about me and what gifts I have from him that make me special.

This week I would like you to think about the POWER of God.

Our God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. Omniscient means "all-knowing" and I think that this is the most common description of God's power. Omnipresent means "ever-present" in all ways. Omnipotent means "all-powerful" or that He can do ANYTHING. He spoke the earth into existence, healed many illnesses including those that still have no cure, made a virgin pregnant, and raised the dead. There are countless current stories about the miracles that are still happening through prayer and Christian intervention.

This power is the driving force behind the first two of hope and worth. Because God is so powerful we can stand firm in our faith and continue to better ourselves through Christ.

Two thousand years ago Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus and gave great emphasis to this point. They, just like us today, had forgotten about this great power and that it was in God that we can take refuge.

This is the point that I think falls the most under the "habituation" category for us. We blindly accept that God is "all-powerful" and we go on about our business. The Bible tells us that we are to focus on this fact and that it should be one of the bases for our faith.

I pray that you all can find comfort in the fact that there is no problem too big for God to take care of. I have seen it in my life and I know that if you pray and watch you will see it too!!!

Have a great week!