I have many quotes by Dallas Willard written on both my physical whiteboard at work and a digital whiteboard accessible through my phone. One quote that I constantly read is:

“You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your every day life with God.”

For me, this quote acts as a barometer of my spiritual health. Virtually every sinful and destructive thought, feeling, decision, action and habit can be traced back to an impoverished and dissatisfied life, one that lacks deep contentment, joy, and confidence in God.

So I know that when I’m experiencing fear, anxiety, anger, lust, pride, selfishness, greed, or any other sinful inclination, my contentment, joy and confidence in God is waning.

But simply saying “in God” may be too general. One key characteristic of God in which we must be content, joyful, and confident is his competence. We must truly believe he knows what he’s doing and is fully capable of implementing his good will.

I listened to a great podcast by John Ortberg this morning. He brings up John 3:16-17 and discusses God’s competence. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:16-17

First, God is fully competent at creating his world. This is his creation, his world. It is the optimal creation to bring about what he intends — a community of love consisting of eternal beings who are trained to be like him so as to co-reign with him in his universe. His creation springs forth and is sustained as an act of his eternal goodness. And while corrupted by humanity’s rebellion, it is still God’s optimal creation. Ultimately, God will renew and restore his world. Yet, even now he fills everything and every moment with his good and capable presence. We live in his good world, his safe world.

Second, God is fully competent at loving his world. He is capable to promote the good of every living thing throughout history. This includes everyone you know and love. And then beyond to everyone around you. And then further to everyone who lives and populates this world. He capably loves everyone and is at work in everyone’s lives without fail. No one slips through his capable care. Nor is anyone too rebellious or willful to be disqualified from his capable care.

Third, God is fully competent at saving his world. God loves his world so capably that his ultimate expression of competent love is to give his son, Jesus. Jesus is the most intelligent master of life that has ever walked God’s creation. In him are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In him rests all authority in heaven and earth. And anyone who places their confidence and loyalty in him will never perish. Absolutely guaranteed! If anyone is competent in saving God’s world, it’s Jesus. And he does this by training and empowering anyone who desires into his full life — his character, his faith, and his power — to easily live in God’s kingdom, here and now. It is God’s optimal plan.

When we’re not content or confident in God’s competence, we start questioning his wisdom and ability. We wonder if he’s truly good and loving. And if he is, we wonder if he’s aware enough or powerful enough to bring it about for us, our loved ones, or our world. Bottom-line, lack of contentment, joy, and confidence in God’s competence leads us to replicate the original sin — grasping for self-autonomy. If we don’t fully trust God and his eternal competence, then we start relying on ourselves to define our purpose and place in this world, to determine what is right, wrong, good, and fair, and to seize control and acquire what we think will make us happy, safe, and secure.

God is competent. Paul says he is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Sure, there are areas in his world that God currently permits to be other than what he wills. Yes, there is pain, disparity, and corruption. Yet, even all of that is within his competent wisdom and power to redeem and bring about what he ultimately intends for ours and creation’s good. God is neither worried nor distraught. As Bishop Todd Hunter has humorously stated, “God is not in heaven, pacing back and forth and wringing his hands, saying ‘Oh Myself! What am I going to do?’” Rather, God is as competent today as he has been since he joyfully spun his universe into being. 

We can trust in his competence to create, love and save. And by developing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in God’s competence, we know he will always do good by us. We can then lean into his capable process to train us into his likeness for his glory and the good of his world.