Is there a limit to God’s Power?
The power of prayer. The power of faith. As Christians we are always talking about and invoke the power the God. Still, bad things happen. Still, sick people die. Still, evil seems to be spreading. You might begin to wonder if there is a limit to God’s power. Well, yes and no.
About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword; and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison; but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church. The very night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison; and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, “Wrap your mantle around you and follow me.” And he went out and followed him; he did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened to them of its own accord, and they went out and passed on through one street; and immediately the angel left him. And Peter came to himself, and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
Acts 12.1-11
Today the Church commemorates the Veneration of the Chains of Saint Peter. Today is a good day to talk about the power of God. We already call Him All-Mighty God. That means on the one hand there is no limit to His power. We don’t call Him Mostly-Mighty.
If God is All-Mighty, then why do bad things still happen? Why do children die in shootings? Why doesn’t God just ‘take the gun’ out of the someone’s hand? Notice in today’s reading in Acts that everyone except Peter was asleep.
The only ‘thing’ the angel manipulated was the chains and gate. If the guard had been awake, Peter might have remained in prison. The angel would have to ‘convince’ the guard to let Peter go. The guard would have been required to choose. So, the angel came when he was asleep.
Yes, God had the power to force the guard to let Peter go. God also have every human being free will. God would be ‘going against’ His own gift if the angel forced the guard to let Peter go. When God gives a gift, He doesn’t take it back. The gift of free will is ours to keep.
The only limit to God’s power is the extent to which we choose His will over our will. God tells us how He desires us to live. Then He gives us the power to choose. He doesn’t force us, and we can’t force Him. So, the angel came when everyone was asleep.
If you want to see God’s power, choose His will over your will. Make a difference in the world choosing to ‘side with’ God. Let’s get back to why bad things happen. We all have the free will to choose good over evil. Some choose evil, so shootings happen.
Nature is another thing. Yes, God could ‘stop’ hurricanes and wildfires, and He sometimes does. The fact that He most of the time allows natural disaster should teach us a lesson. Why is God allowing such tragedy? Maybe He wants us to pay attention to something.
Our free will has an impact on everything and everyone around us. Some people use free will to shoot people. Others use free will for greed and political power. Others use their free will to control others. Is it possible God wants to reconsider how we use our free will?
Then there is always the issue of our priorities. Let’s be honest for a moment about natural disasters. For the ‘most part’ the tragedy people experience isn’t the loss of life. Yes, people die, which is bad, but ‘most’ people are far more upset at the loss of material things.
I am not minimizing death, but God already ‘took care’ of death when He died on the Cross and was resurrected. God’s real power was shown when He defeated death on the Cross. When tragedy comes, and we care more about physical damage than our soul, there’s a problem.
So, we come back to the power of prayer. Instead of using our prayer time to ask God to stop nature, we should ask Him to help us see our sins. The real power of prayer is when we realize we care more about a house than our soul.
The power of our faith is in God, not ourselves. There is no limit to that type of power.
