I believe in God the Father.  Notice how quickly it’s said, and how much it’s worth.  He’s God, and he’s Father; God in power, Father in goodness.  How lucky we are, to have discovered that our God is our Father!  So let us believe in him and promise ourselves everything from his kindness and mercy, because he is almighty.  That’s why we believe in God the Father almighty.

Nobody must say, “He can’t forgive me my sins.”

“How can’t he, being almighty?”

And I say, “But he’s almighty.”

And you: “I’ve committed such sins as I can’t possibly be cleansed and delivered from.”

I reply, “But he’s almighty.”

Notice what you sing to him in the psalm: Bless the Lord, my soul, it says, and do not forget his recompenses, who shows himself gracious to all your iniquities, who heals all your weaknesses (Psalm 103:2-3).  That’s what we need him to be almighty for.

The whole of creation needs this, of course, in order to be created; he is almighty for making heavenly things and earthly things, almighty for making immortal things and mortal things, almighty for making spiritual things and material things, almighty for making visible things and invisible things; great in the great things, and not small in the least things; in a word, he is almighty for making whatever he has wished to make.

I mean, let me tell you how many things he can’t do.  He can’t die, he can’t sin, he can’t lie, he can’t be deceived or mistaken; so many things he can’t do, and if he could do them he wouldn’t be almighty.  So believe in him and confess him; For with the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth one makes confession unto salvation (Romans 10:10).  That’s why, once you have believed, you must confess, when you give back the Symbol.  So receive now what you are to retain, and afterward to give back, and never to forget.

[see brief biography on Augustine of Hippo]