Have you ever wanted to help someone but were unable to? Perhaps a family member had a need, but you lived a thousand miles away. On the other hand, have you ever had the resources to help with a need, but you just weren’t quite willing to for some reason? With people, both of these scenarios are quite common. What about with God? We know that God is able to meet any need and fulfill any promise. II Corinthians 9:8 speaks to this ability.
II Corinthians 9:8:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
Just as much as God is able, He is also willing to fulfill each promise that He has made to us in His Word. This means that God, unlike man, always has both the ability and the willingness to meet any need according to what He has promised in His Word. What God is able to do, He is willing to do; and what He is willing to do, He is able to do.
How do we know that God is willing to perform His promises for us? The Word of God is the will of God, and His Word assures us of His willingness.
Numbers 23:19:
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Could it be any clearer? If God said something, if He made a promise, He will make good on that promise. He is willing to carry out what He has promised! God does not change. This means that the God we love and serve today is the same God that was spoken of in the Book of Numbers. Our God will make good on every promise to us. We see a similar guarantee in the New Testament.
I John 5:14,15:
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Again, God’s Word is His will. When we ask God for anything promised in His Word, we have the assurance that it is according to His will, which means that He is willing to perform it for us.
Though God is always both able and willing to fulfill His promises for us, something is required of us: we must become fully convinced in our believing that God is able and willing to perform. Let’s consider an example from God’s Word that demonstrates how believing God’s ability and willingness allows us to claim God’s promises.
Abraham and Sarah were believers in the Old Testament who provide a clear example of believing that God is both able and willing to fulfill His promises. God promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son. Abraham didn’t stagger at the promise of God but was strong in believing.
Romans 4:20,21:
He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith [believing], giving glory to God;
And being fully persuaded that, what he [God] had promised, he [God] was able also to perform.
Sarah joined her husband in believing that God’s ability always equals His willingness.
Hebrews 11:11:
Through faith [believing] also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Abraham and Sarah were well beyond the normal age to bear children when they saw God’s promise come to pass. When they both believed that God was faithful to perform what He had promised, they received the fulfillment of that promise. We too can expect God to faithfully carry out His promises when we believe, because He is able and willing to perform them.
God’s willingness is always equal to His ability. God’s Word is His will, so any promise recorded in His Word is absolutely within His willingness to perform. When we become convinced of this truth and believe God is faithful to perform what He has promised, our lives will demonstrate that God’s willingness always equals His ability.