Receiving The Impossible

Nothing is impossible with God.

Luke 1:37

This promise is part of the birth announcement of the Savior. The angel is telling Mary that she, a virgin, will conceive a son, and the angel punctuates this staggering pronouncement with the assurance that nothing is impossible with God.

God never promises to do anything that he does not have the power necessary to accomplish. Mary could not help but wonder how such a thing—a virgin bearing a son—could happen. The biological world did not offer a way. The usual process of procreation rendered such a thing impossible.

But where the world has no way, God has a way. He is the way. By the exercise of his power and his presence, what was not so becomes so. In Gabriel’s words, Mary heard a declaration that the only things necessary to fulfill God’s promise are his power and his presence. With God all things are possible.

He promises the impossible. He never speaks a word that does not carry his guarantee in it. He never speaks a word that is not fully backed up by his power. Whatever he promises, he performs. Why do I think I have to be able to see a way? He does not call me to a belief based on observable evidence; he calls me to believe things that are impossible.

What seems impossible to you today? God specializes in impossible. Do you find yourself in a situation that is bigger than you are? That’s where God is at his best. Have you tried everything you know to do and still come up short? God is on the move. Have you run out of ideas? God will work far beyond your best idea. Nothing is impossible with God.

Lord, I embrace your promises and rest all the weight of my life on your sure Word. Teach me to stop looking around for answers and, instead, look up to the Answer. God of the impossible, here I am.

Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.

Corrie Ten Boom(1892–1983), Dutch author, speaker, and concentration camp survivor