Proclaiming The Omnipotence of God (Nehemiah 9:6)
You alone are the LORD.
You have made the heavens,
The heaven of heavens with all their host,
The earth and all that is on it,
The seas and all that is in them.
You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.
Nehemiah 9:6
Here we are. Six months in, school starting back up. Trying to move forward but there always seems to be a roadblock in the way. Relationships aren’t what they were. The amount of people I meet up with shrunk to a handful of what it used to be. How do we all stay firm and grounded, unshakable in our faith?
When I studied Nehemiah a while back, preparing to teach through it, something about his character stood out to me. He was a faithful man. He prepared his heart for the conversation he had with the king back in chapter two, which could have gone very badly for him. He made the long trip back to Jerusalem with the king’s blessing and is famous for getting the wall built. During the construction, he dealt with locals who did not like what he was doing. He got pushback, but he stayed faithful.
Nehemiah’s faith starts with the solid ground of the Lord. By the time we get to chapter nine, the people of Jerusalem are dedicating the city and themselves back to God. They are confessing their sins and repenting. They exclaim these words in verse six. What is that telling us about the God they, and we, serve? If this is what God has done already, what do we have to fear? God created with a word- He spoke and it happened. The One who has the power to do that is worthy of our faith. The people that day had reason to separate themselves, fast, wear sackcloth, and spend that time renewing themselves prostrate to the Lord.
I think we often (I know I do) forget about the power of God. We know He is there and listening, but will He really do this or that. I need to be reminded of the power of God. He is The Creator, of the heavens, the earth and all that is in them. Fear washes away. The insurmountable life circumstances wash away. Faith grows and we find joy. All the things I mentioned, in the beginning, can be overcome by our God who can do all things.
I leave you with this: “Whatever God can do faith can do, and whatever faith can do prayer can do when it is offered in faith. An invitation to prayer is, therefore, an invitation to omnipotence, for prayer engages the Omnipotent God and brings Him into our human affairs. Nothing is impossible for the man who prays in faith, just as nothing is impossible with God. This generation has yet to prove all that prayer can do for believing men and women.” ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer
Art Mattes