Impossible

When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?” He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.” Luke 18:24-27

WHEN THE RICH MAN turned away from Jesus, it was because he was in love with the world. And this scares us a bit, because we see how much our children love the world. They love its thrills and its technology. They love its promises of becoming somebody and its paths to getting ahead. They love its entertainment and its enticements. We think that it’s going to be really hard to figure out how to wean them away from all that the world offers and instill in them a desire for what the Kingdom of God offers. But the truth is more dire. It is impossible for parents to do what is necessary to keep their children from loving the world more than Christ and his benefits. So where does that leave us?

It leaves us wholly dependent on God to do what is impossible for us to do. When we’re discouraged about the hold that worldly things and worldly ways of thinking have on our children, we remember that what is impossible for people is possible with God. When it seems foolish to hope or expect that there will be change deep in their hearts, we recall the Lord’s limitless mercy and grace. While it may be impossible for us to convince our children to change, impossible for us to generate their interest in the things of God, impossible for us to penetrate the defenses that have been built to keep out the truth, it is not impossible for God. Our children’s future and destiny are not determined by what we can make happen. Change is possible because God does what is impossible for us to do.

Lord, I hear you telling me that I should put to rest all my planning and manipulating, and bring to mind your power and your purposes. While I have influence as ________’s parent, I simply don’t have the power to create life from death, intensity from apathy, new affections for Christ from deeply ingrained attachments to the world. But you do. Will you do what is impossible for me to do in ________’s heart and life?