In my post “Omni God,” I mentioned that, among other things, God is “omnipotent.” This means that God possesses unlimited strength and has universal power and authority.
The word omnipotent occurs in Amplified Bible, but most translations use “almighty” instead, often in the form of a proper name, as in the Almighty, God Almighty, Lord God Almighty. Almighty means having absolute power or being all-powerful.
God is omnipotent, with unlimited power and authority, so there’s nothing that he can’t do — including no prayer that he can’t answer.
A related word is sovereign, which means to exercise supreme, permanent authority. God’s sovereignty is not so that he can be malevolent towards us, but to be benevolent. He does not want to withhold things from us, but to give things to us.
God is omnipotent and sovereign, able to answer prayer, so we can confidently ask with the expectation that he will answer (more on that in my next post).
David said, “I call on you, my God, for you will answer me.”
Jesus said, “Everyone who asks receives.”
John said, “We know that we have what we asked of him.”
God’s omnipotence and sovereignty reveals that he has the ability and desire to answer our prayers.
[Psalm 17:6, Luke 11:9-10, 1 John 5:14-15; also see “The Implications of Omniscience” and “The Implications of Omnipresence“]In my prior post, I made a couple of tweaks to the prayer of Jabez. The original text reads:
Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.”
Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.
Consider my paraphrase:
Jabez was a man of honor and integrity, but his mother had nicknamed him “hemorrhoid” and always called him a “pain in the butt,” because his birth was so painful.
Jabez pleaded with God: “Bless me abundantly — so that I may bless others — and grant me much influence; keep me on the right track, so that I may do good things, and no longer be viewed as a pain in the butt!” And God said “yes!” to his petition.
That’s what the prayer of Jabez means to me.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
