Your Heavenly Father Is Capable

Lloyd Cain

We could look at the great truth that your heavenly Father cares (1 Peter 5:7). We could also look at the corresponding great truth that your heavenly Father is cognizant, for the Saviour said, "Your heavenly Father knows" (Matt. 6:8, 32). We want to look first at the truth that Your Heavenly Father is Capable, for we read that God is able to do "exceeding abundantly (literally, vastly more and more) above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20). May we ask reverently as to what, as revealed in Scriptures, God is able to do.

He is able to save

A leper came to the Lord Jesus with two great truths from the gospel for he said "if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean" (Matt. 8:2). He recognized a Compassionate Christ even as we are told that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). That which characterizes the Father also characterizes the Son. The leper not only perceived a Compassionate Christ, but also a Competent Christ for he recognized in Him the ability to cleanse and was not disappointed. Jesus put forth His hand and touched him and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. This ability to save is seen also in the words of John the Baptist who told the Pharisees that "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Matt. 3:9). God can raise up out of that which is lifeless, living stones for His family.

The Lord spoke of these living stones when He told the Pharisees that if "these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:40). Peter, taking a lesson from the Lord, as seen in his epistles, shows that living stones are being built up into a spiritual house for an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5). What is God able to do? First and foremost, He is able to save, to regenerate and to create a people for His Name.

He is able to safeguard

As the three friends of Daniel were about to be cast alive into the burning, fiery furnace, they said, "our God whom we serve is able to deliver us" (Daniel 3:17). Nebuchadnezzar had watched three bound men being cast into the furnace, but later as he peered into that same furnace, he exclaimed, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Dan. 3:26). Paul knew this truth of being divinely safeguarded for he wrote out of a confident heart "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1: 12).

Jude wrote concerning the perils of the apostasy that would characterize the last days and said "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory..." (Jude 24). He was setting before us the truth of the Great Preserver of the people of God. Previously he had outlined what we call a prescription for preservation for he uses an imperative, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Jude uses three participles which are the necessary means to our keeping ourselves: "Building up yourselves in your most holy faith ... praying in the Holy Spirit ... looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Edification through the Word, effectual prayer at the Throne of Grace and expectation as one anticipates the deliverance that will be ours at His coming are the means of keeping ourselves in the love of God. Jude then terminates his letter by reminding them that it is only God our Saviour who is able to preserve and present us blameless before Him. We are dependent on Him (See Romans 16:25).