Asking God For The Impossible

Asking God for the Impossible

Lysa TerKeurst

Several years ago, I sat beside my youngest sister and listened as she boldly rejected my views of God. She told me how she’d always been a free spirit, much too unconventional for traditional religion.

“Good thing I’m not into religion,” I gently replied.

She twisted her face as if half expecting a lightning bolt to strike us both. “But you are religious,” she said.

I laid my head against the back of the lounge chair, closed my eyes to the sun now washing over me, and simply replied, “Nope.”

Letting my statement just sit for a while, I decided not to clarify unless she asked. And ask she did.

That’s when I explained that I follow God, not a list of rules. I am passionate about getting into the Bible—God’s teachings—and letting the Bible get into me. I no longer evaluate life based on my feelings. Instead, I let my feelings and experiences be evaluated in light of God’s Word.

I have watched God chase me around with rich evidence of His presence and invitations to trade apathy for active faith. But I had to make the choice to see God. Hear God. Know God. And follow hard after God.

Then I took my sister’s hand and told her I’d be praying for God to mess with her in ways too bold for her to deny.

Fast forward over six years later. My sister walks into her professor’s office and sees one of my books on the bookshelf. I don’t think she really believed anyone actually read my books. But there it was. And it messed with her.

She later went home and poked around my blog a bit, where she found a clip of my testimony. Again, it messed with her. One verse in particular messed with her so much that she let the possibility that God exists slip into her heart.

A few days later, she went and had “Jeremiah 29:11” tattooed on the back of her neck, which is the reference for this promise: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” And she started calling, wanting to talk to me. About life. About tattoos. And about God.

A few weeks after she got the tattoo, I stood in the middle of an airport praying for my precious sister who called while I was traveling, and asked me to pray for her. She had called. She had asked. And that’s the miracle of our Jesus. He is the God of the impossible.

I wonder what might happen if we dared to ask God for the impossible just a little more often. I’m up for it. Are you?

Dear Lord, use me today to reach the heart of one. I want to trade any apathy I may have for active faith. Lead me, and I will follow. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

REMEMBER

The miracle of our Jesus is He is the God of the impossible.

REFLECT

What intrigues you about knowing nothing is impossible for God to do and no one is impossible for God to reach?

RESPOND

Take a few moments to wonder what might happen if you dared to ask God for the impossible just a little more often.

POWER VERSES

John 15:13; Ephesians 1:17