Second, God is all-powerful. Think with me for a minute: what if God were wise, in the ways we’ve just seen, but suppose he didn’t have the power to bring about what his wisdom had planned? What would we think about God then? Well, we might respect God for having such vast knowledge and perfect wisdom, but we would also feel sorry for someone who knew the best things to do but who couldn’t do them. But what if God had all power and yet suppose that he wasn’t actually wise? What would we think then? It doesn’t take long to realize that if this were true, we would be terrified of God and of what he might do. After all, to have all power but to lack wisdom that directs its use is a very scary idea. But here is the truth—the true God, the God of the Bible, is both perfectly wise and almighty in his power! He is able to plan what is best, and nothing can keep God from bringing about what he knows is best to do.

Abraham and Sarah learned about God’s great power. They were both very old, and they had not yet had the son that God had promised they would have. As the years went by and Sarah got older and older, she began to doubt that God could make it possible for her to have this baby boy. When God told Abraham that he would work in Sarah’s body so that she would give birth to a son named Isaac, Sarah laughed. God heard this, and he responded, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (Genesis 18:13–14). Interestingly, the name Isaac that God said to name this son means, “he laughs.” So, even though Sarah laughed, thinking she was too old for God to fulfill this promise, God instructed that her son be named “Isaac,” “he laughs.” God’s power was so great that God got the last laugh. God’s power is without limit. As the prophet Jeremiah states, “Ah, Lord God! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17). Nothing? No, nothing!

Third, God is all-good. How encouraging to know that yes, God is all-good. Even though we are very glad that God is completely good, this is another truth about God that is sometimes hard to believe. After all, we do not know anyone who is completely and perfectly good. Because we are sinners, and all the people we know are sinners—even really fine Christian people still sin and do what is wrong sometimes—we find it hard to believe that God is purely and perfectly good. But good he is! Psalm 5:4 declares of God, “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.” God has no wickedness or evil in him at all. Rather, as Psalm 119:68 says of God, “You are good and do good.” God’s very life is good, and all of his actions are good. There is no evil in God at all, and all that God is and all that God does is completely good.