Mensa Otabil - God's Ability (11/01/2025)
We’ve talked about living positively. We’ve talked about delighting ourselves in the Lord, but we do all of that because we trust that God is able. God has the ability to do things for us. We don’t just trust in Him and hope that things will be well; we trust in Him because He is able.
2 Corinthians chapter 9:8 says, «And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.» God is unlimited in power; He can and is willing to do things for us. When we trust in Him, we trust Him because He is able.
How is God’s ability demonstrated to us? Well, God extends His grace to us. His ability to do things for us begins with His grace being extended to us. God’s grace is God’s ability that is made available to us, and He demonstrates His grace to us in many ways. The passage says He makes all grace abound toward us. What does that mean?
Well, grace is God’s ability, and there is the grace of God that brings us salvation. There is the grace of God that brings us healing. There is the grace of God that fills us with His Spirit. There is a grace of God that helps financially. So for every need of ours, for everything that we desire from the Lord, there is grace for it-His love and ability extended to us.
The passage calls His grace «all grace,» so it’s not right for us just to believe God can do only one thing. He can do more than one thing; He can do a lot of things. All grace- God’s grace makes us sufficient. That’s what the passage says: that when He gives us His grace, we have all sufficiency. That means we have everything that makes us capable.
The Apostle Paul was somebody who understood this, and he noted that because of the grace of God that was available to him, when he was weak, he became strong because the grace of God was sufficient for him. That’s something we can also latch onto. Normally, God’s grace comes to us when we don’t have our own ability. When we don’t have the capacity to do something, then He gives us help -His grace coming to us.
So when you are weak, He makes you strong. When you are down, He lifts you up. When you are poor, He supplies your need. God’s grace makes us sufficient.
The third thing is that God gives us abundantly. He says that His grace is not scanty; His grace is not limited. God has not experienced shortages. God does not experience shortages in His supply chain. Many people in the world or many countries are having what they call supply chain problems, and goods are not moving as they should. God doesn’t have that problem; His grace for us gives us abundantly.
But usually, God will not overload us at one time with all the things we need. Jesus says, «When you pray, say, 'Give us this day our daily bread.'» That’s one of the prayers you have to learn to pray. God gives us abundantly, but the abundance does not come all at once; it comes as daily bread, daily provision, daily help. As He helps us daily, it grows into something big.
You know, there is a saying that little trickles of water make a mighty river. In the same way, little trickles of God’s provision daily for us create an overflow. One of these days, the daily things that God does for you will result in something mighty and magnificent, but it started because He gave you this day your daily bread. God’s abundance comes to us in daily portions-small portions every day. Little by little, you become the person that God wants you to be.
So God is able. Trust Him, depend on Him, and He will not fail you. Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, Your grace is my efficiency. I receive abundance from You in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.»