Impossible Things

Luke 18:27 - “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

Sometimes a simple phrase in the Word of God strikes both my heart and my mind with a shot of reality that is at once fundamentally comforting, and uncomfortably challenging. I started pondering these few words, and several thoughts began to form.

In the encounter with the rich young ruler, and the subsequent conversation with His disciples in Luke 18, Jesus had just made the observation that it is more difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye. The answer from the disciples – “Who then can be saved?” – points to the impossibility of the situation before them. Jesus then responds by saying, basically, “You don’t know the power of My Father’s imagination! Whatever enters His heart and mind can be done – all He has to do is speak the Word, and all will be accomplished.”

My point right now is not to debate the pros and cons of having wealth. Rather, it is to let my mind go to all the things that seem impossible. Jesus is opening the door to limitless potentiality here, because He says “whatever is impossible with men…” That’s everything that is beyond us – He can do.

So, I start thinking about impossible things. Join me? Start with small stuff – some situation at home or at work that seems unfixable. If it’s impossible, He can do it. Move on to something more challenging - that sickness in a friend or co-worker – is it impossible? Then it’s in His realm, and He can do it.

Want something harder? How about unity in the Body of Christ in a city? IMPOSSIBLE!! Good – it’s in God’s hands now. He can do it. Do we dare think about revival in a city, or in a nation that seems hell-bent on self-destruction? Once again, impossible, except it’s not. God can speak, and when His Word comes forth, it accomplishes the purposes for which it was sent.

Here’s the big one – can the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth? Can God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven? Jesus told us to ask impossible things, so that when they happen, no one will be confused about Who brought it about. He thinks it, speaks it, and it happens. So the main thing for us is to disengage from what seems impossible and plug into what He’s thinking and speaking. The more we do that, the more we get to play in the realm of the creativity of God.

Impossible, you say? Not so much.

Gary Wiens