Our God is Able

I needed some inspiration this morning, some perspective, some wisdom and courage.  Martin Luther King Jr. has a way with words, has a way of saying what I need to hear.  Below is part of the sermon that I read today...I needed the reminder from MLK about God: He is Able.

Admitting the weighty problems and staggering disappointments, Christianity affirms that God is able to give us the power to meet them.  He is able to give us the inner equilibrium to stand tall amid the trials and burdens of life.  He is able to provide inner peace amid outer storms.  

This inner stability of the man of faith is Christ's chief legacy to his disciples.  He offers neither material resources nor a magical formula that exempts us from suffering and persecution, but he brings an imperishable gift: "Peace I leave with you."  This is that peace which passeth all understanding.

At times we may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when the storms of disappointment rage, the winds of disaster blow, and the tidal waves of grief beat against our lives, if we do not have a deep and patient faith our emotional lives will be ripped to shreds.  

There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God.  We have genuflected before the god of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate.  We have worshipped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived. 

We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of possible depressions, stock market crashes, and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity.  These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart.

Only God is able.  It is faith in him that we must rediscover.  With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism.  

Is someone here moving toward the twilight of life and fearful of that which we call death? Why be afraid? God is able.  Is someone here on the brink of despair because of the death of a loved one, the breaking of a marriage, or the waywardness of a child? Why despair? God is able to give you the power to endure that which cannot be changed. Is someone here anxious because of bad health? Why be anxious? Come what may, God is able.

~ Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love: Our God is able.  p 112-113