Probable Doesn’t Determine Possible

Do you need a miracle? Is there an area, or areas, of your life where you need the hand of God to reach in and do what only he can do?  I’d be willing to bet that for most of us the answer is yes.  The bigger question is, do you believe it’s possible?

Saying yes to the last question is a little more difficult, at least for me.  Even though I wholeheartedly believe in God and trust him for my salvation, my day-to-day thoughts of God are often far too small.  I restrict my belief in what he’s capable of to what seems realistic. I doubt what’s possible. I grow cynical and before I know it, I’ve reduced my very BIG God to fit inside the box of what I can see and understand.

But recently, God’s been convicting me of this thinking and reminding me that taking an outside the box God and trying to box him into human understanding only robs me of experiencing his wonder and greatness.

The source of my reminder…none other than a group of five-year old’s.

Not too long ago, I started volunteering with a group of K-5 kiddos several Sundays a month.  When I first saw the memory verse and curriculum for this past month, I just smiled.  My task for the month of January was to help these children come to know that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

As we learned that Jesus can do anything and saw examples of this, from feeding a crowd of 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish to turning water into wine (or as our curriculum called it ‘Super Fancy Party Drink’ haha), my heart was sweetly reminded that the God of the Bible is a God of impossibilities (Mark 6:31-44, John 2:1-11).

As my pastor recently said, “miracles are only miracles to us. They aren’t a big effort to God.”

It’s time to stop living like God must be understood to be believed.  It’s time to stop praying timid prayers prefaced by “if you can.”

As Jesus told the man who uttered these same words in Mark 9, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:22-23).

Pray boldly.  BELIEVE.  Trust that he is capable of every “yes.”

Does this mean he will always answer “yes” to anything and everything we ask? No, and that’s one of the hardest things about believing that God can…accepting when he doesn’t.  But, this we can still believe…he has a good reason for every “no” and “not yet,” even if it doesn’t make sense from our limited, here-and-now perspective.

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.” (Jeremiah 32:17)

God, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)