Sunday Sermon with Dr. King #11

Our God is Able*

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from failing.”

Jude 24

Today is Mother’s Day and my grandmother’s 2nd heavenly birthday. She would have been 89 here on Earth. It is an important day in my life, personally. But as this sermon states - God is Able. As we grow older, that happy-go-lucky innocence, spared of grief and the sadness that exists in this life, diminishes. After every trial, disappointment, death of a loved one, etc., the light gets dimmer and dimmer BUT this sermon states - God is Able. I look forward to gleaning spiritual and intellectual wisdom when I prepare for the blogs in this series. This week is no exception. Last week, I was on hiatus, as my website was under construction. There will be a relaunch coming very soon.

Dr. King begins by stating how people have long been replacing “God is able” with “Man is able”. He cites the chronology of the Renaissance, the Age of Reason, the industrial revolution in England, when laboratories replaced churches, when scientists substituted prophets, when science and technology, telescope and television, telephone, radio, and microphone, automobile and airplane, and finally wonder drugs have altered man in versatile and enormous ways that people began relying on other people rather than God. He then moves to discuss the evils in the world and the age old question of “why does God allow evil to exist?” His response: “what appears at the moment to be evil may have a purpose that our finite minds are incapable of comprehending” (p. 111). 

He then shares three ways in which God is able: 1. God is able to sustain the vast scope of the physical universe, 2. God is able to subdue all the powers of evil, and 3. God is able to give us interior resources to confront the trials and difficulties of life. The first discussion is how instead of depending too much on man-centered arrogance, we should focus on how the universe is so intricate and that God created it. The second discussion highlights evils such as colonialism and segregation, but how God is able to conquer all historical evils in time. The last discussion focuses on a personal experience (pictured below) and Dr. King’s dependence on God because God gave him the inner peace that only God is able to give. 

p.116

p. 117

*King, M. L. (1963). Strength to love. New York: Harper & Row.