Tag Archives: Nothing is impossible with God

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What Is God’s Greatest Challenge?

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

What is God’s greatest challenge? You have probably shouted out the answer already—at least in your spirit: Nothing! There is no such thing as a challenge with God. He has no unsolvable problems, no dilemmas, no head-scratching issues, and certainly no worries. Jeremiah said it well, “O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!” (Jeremiah 32:17) Lean into that truth today—you will need it!

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 7:1-2

Elisha replied, “Listen to this message from the Lord! This is what the Lord says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver.” The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!” But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!”

What is God’s greatest challenge? You have probably shouted out the answer already—at least in your spirit: Nothing! There is no such thing as a challenge with God. He has no unsolvable problems, no dilemmas, no head-scratching issues, and certainly no worries. Jeremiah said it well,

O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you! (Jeremiah 32:17)

God himself told a childless couple, Abraham and Sarah, well into their nineties, that they would become the parents of nations. But they found that wild promise a bit much. So God had to remind them that he who created the universe with a mere word would have little challenge opening the womb of a very old woman,

Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son. (Genesis 18:14)

When Jesus’ disciples challenged him with the human impossibility of being made right with God, he agreed. But he then added that the impossibility of eternal salvation was no challenge to God.

Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible. (Matthew 19:26)

In this story from 2 Kings 7, there is a devastating famine going on in Israel. The suffering is untold, the desperation of the people is unspeakable—parents actually eating the bodies of their own children. The king is so disgusted with God—he misplaces the blame on the Lord rather than on his and his own people’s abandonment of God, as rebellious people are wont to do—that he wants to kill the next best thing to God, Elisha the prophet.

But in a great act of mercy, God tells the wayward king that by the next day, there will be plenty to eat in Israel. In fact, there will be so much abundance that it will cause deflation in the economy like the world has never seen. Of course, neither the king nor his entourage believed this was possible. So they issued the one challenge to God that the Almighty loves to take:

That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven! (2 Kings 2:2)

In other words, “that’s impossible; that’s not going to happen. Not even God could do that!” “Oh yeah,” God says, “watch this.” And he does it, just as he said.

Now the point I want to make is this: If God will do that for evil, rebellious people, how much more will he move heaven and earth—not a big deal to him; he’s just rearranging the furniture—for you, his dearly loved child. Perhaps you are facing an impossible challenge right now. Just know this: What is challenging for you is no big deal for God. He thrives on challenges, which are no challenges to him at all.

How so? God has no challenges!

Going Deeper With God: Memorize this verse today—and then lean into it, for it is as true as true can be: O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you! (Jeremiah 32:17)

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Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff (It’s All Small Stuff)

Being With Jesus:
John 6:5-6

Jesus went up into the hills and sat down with his disciples around him. Soon he saw a great multitude of people climbing the hill, looking for him. Turning to Philip he asked, “Philip, where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” (He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.)

I’m not sure who first said it (its origin has been attributed to several different authors), but I think it offers some sage advice for people who follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Rules for living, we could rightly call them.  It simply goes like this:

Rule # 1: Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Rule #2: It’s all small stuff.

That is true! You see, with God, nothing is impossible; it’s all small stuff to him. That is not just my theology, that comes from God’s own mouth. God told a perplexed Abraham and a cynical Sarah when he announced to them that they would have a son well into their 90’s (and beyond, actually, for Abraham):

“Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” (Genesis 18:13-14)

Is anything too hard for the Lord? No—it’s all small stuff! Even giving barren, octogenarian couples their first child.

When Jeremiah the prophet was crying out to God over the devastation of Israel and the insurmountable problems the nation was facing, the Holy Spirit inspired him to prayerfully pour out this affirmation in his appeal to the Almighty for help:

“O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!” (Jeremiah 32:17)

Later in that same chapter, God himself sent this word to the prophet:

“I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:26-27)

Is anything too hard for the Lord? No—it’s all small stuff! Even taking a shattered, scattered nation and reconstituting them for his glory and purpose.

Nothing Is Too Hard For GodDo you get the point? Nothing is above God’s pay grade. That’s because the created order in its entirety was conceived and perfectly engineered in the mind of God before it came into being. God created everything that exists by the breath of his mouth. God hung the stars by flicking them into space with his finger. He holds everything that we see and don’t see perfectly in place by his powerful and caring hand. There is nothing—absolutely nothing—that escapes his watchful eye.

And therefore, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—that’s too big or too hard for him. Nothing is impossible to God, and therefore, all things are possible for his people.

That’s why Jesus, who is God the Son, the agent of creation, said to Phillip, “what shall we do with this gigantic crowd of seekers? They’re hungry, and we’ve got to feed them. Where can we get that much food?” Of course, we know how the massive crowd would get miraculously fed because John clearly states that Jesus already knew what he was going to do. His question was just to test Phillip for the purpose of stretching his faith.

And Jesus will do that with us, too. Even though he already knows what he’s going to do, he doesn’t automatically do it without first stretching, tempering, testing and strengthening our faith, which is of greater value than any miraculous intervention we could hope for.

But don’t miss the whole point of this: Jesus already knows what he needs to do. And if that is true, then Rule #1 for you as his follower would be, “Don’t’ sweat the small stuff!”  Why? It is a wasted use of energy, and it’s dishonoring to the One who already knows what to do. Therefore, as his follower, Rule #2 is certainly true, too: “It’s all small stuff!”

Since that is true, why not relax a little bit today, and let God be God. Exercise your trust and let God take care of your big stuff, since it’s all small stuff to him.

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“All things are possible until they are proved impossible and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.” (Pearl S. Buck)

Getting To Know Jesus: What are you sweating today? Visualize holding it in the palms of your hands. Walk outside and lift your hands heavenward and release it to the Lord with these words, “Father, this is too big for me, but not for you. Here, you take it and do with it according to your purpose.” Then thank God that he has just given you the greatest gift: He has stretched your faith!