We are so accustomed to giving up. We either don’t believe in the interventions of God in our problems — or we just give up after a prayer or two. “I’m tired of praying.” “I don’t know what I am going to do.” “Obviously, God doesn’t want to answer this prayer.”
Our difficult situations can feel impossible. Sometimes, the answer truly is impossible. Yet even when something seems totally impossible, someone comes along and does it.
In 1954, a medical student named Roger Bannister ran the very first 4-minute mile. Since then, it’s been done hundreds of times. Climbing Mount Everest. Heart-transplant surgery. Landing on the moon. Splitting atoms. All of these things were thought to be impossible — except that they weren’t!
We, as human beings created in God’s image, have the capacity to change, to grow, to learn, to overcome. But the word “impossible” creeps into our mindset all too easily.
However, in spite of human determination we do have limits. We can and do come to the end of ourselves at times. But when we are at the end of our resources, God is just beginning.
Our difficult situations can feel impossible. Sometimes, the answer truly is impossible. Yet even when something seems totally impossible, someone comes along and does it.
The book of Luke is the setting for the title of this writing. The story is right in the middle of two impossibilities. Elizabeth, the wife of Zachariah, had never had a child. For Jews, this felt like a curse. Elizabeth was already a senior citizen. But God! She became pregnant and conceived the child who grew up to be John the Baptist. Then, the angel Gabriel came directly to Mary, Elizabeth’s young relative, and informed her that she was highly favored by the Lord and she was going to have a child. This should have been impossible as well! Mary was a single Jewish girl — that would be scandalous! So, two women, both in impossible situations (one too old and one too young), heard directly from the angel that “with God, nothing is impossible.”
God has proven this truth, this incredible FACT, throughout all His interactions with humanity. The Bible records untold interventions of God. Added to that, believers through the ages up until our times have all been a part of God’s interventions.
We can sometimes do what seems impossible, and the fact that it has never been done before can’t stop us. But when neither you nor anyone else can solve the issue, make it happen, open that closed door, or stop that power of darkness — there is still God. When it really is impossible, God steps in.
Nothing is final until God says so. Look at your impossible situations in the face, pray steadfastly, and trust that God is bigger!
