Competency in God

By Bob Gaudi

“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from our loving Father.”
—2 Cor 3:5

Last week I was a bit anxious as I was approaching the deadline for submission of devotion for July. I just could not come up with a topic or an idea that I felt the Spirit moving me to write on. Writers block? Whatever you want to call it, I was not experiencing any obvious nudging toward an “ah ha” moment. I than begin to question my competency. Should I really be doing this? Maybe I’m not qualified or inspired enough to please God in my attempts to share my thoughts on His Word with others. Then, as often happens, seemingly out of nowhere I realized that all I had to do was rely on God’s competency to come up with a topic. For in Him we find all we need. So there it was: write a devotion on the theme of the competency we get from God. Paul wrote of this competence in 2 Cor 3:5 as noted at the beginning of this devotion.

So how do we get this competence? God, with whom nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37) provides the resources and tools we require. God’s Word, found in the Bible, reveals His purpose and transforms our character. The Holy Spirit guides and empowers us in the transformation process. His spiritual gifts enable us to serve Him. We can put it all together through regular communication with God in prayer. Through regular prayer and scripture study we exercise perseverance and grow in our trust in and dependence on The Lord.

We are human and because we are human we are fallible. We fail and we sin, we stumble and we fall. In ourselves we are inadequate; God is not. He is perfect in all ways and we must rely on Him at all times, realizing He will guide and act in us if we allow Him. In so doing, He will make us adequate for His purpose. His divine power is incomprehensible and unknowable and beyond our imagination (Eph 3:20). His power and adequacy is inexhaustible and it is available to us. All we have to do is ask.

Our loving God can do all things and his plan for us cannot be thwarted (Job 42:2). His son, our redeemer Jesus Christ said with God all things are possible in Mathew 19:26. So there is it friends, in Christ: our God can do all things. The character of God is all loving, all forgiving, all merciful, all powerful and all kind and gracious. By His grace he gave us his only son to die for our sins and free us from death lurking in those sins.

Our God has a plan for each and every one of us. He is not going to send us on our way without providing us with the capability to succeed in His plan. Turn to our loving Father to tap into the competency He generously provides. When in doubt or in need, or just because you can, ask Him for guidance and support and you WILL find it. Seek and you will find. Trust in The Lord, He will make you capable.

Heavenly Father, thank you for being a gracious provider and protector and source of all power and ability for us. Thank you Jesus, for showing us how You depended on Your Father and in so doing demonstrating the power of surrender to Him. In your name I pray, Amen.