The God of the Impossible

He truly is the God of the impossible! In the midst of passion week, we contemplate our Saviour's inexorable march to the cross, His face "set like flint" as He completely fulfilled His Father's will and secured our salvation. I dare not look ahead to the glories of the resurrection, for right now I want to fully enter into the depth of the agony and sorrow and shame of what the Lord Jesus endured for you and for me. But praise God, I cannot help but rejoice that the black shadow of the cross is tinged with the tiniest glimpse of the dawn of Easter morning. And so I know that just as Christ "endured the cross" because of the "joy set before Him," (Heb.12:2), we, too, can endure whatever crosses or challenges or crises facing us because of the glorious and eternal hope and joy assured us by Christ's death and resurrection.

It had been that kind of semester for one of my children, a freshman at college who was playing golf for his school. His 2nd semester had been one challenge after another. He went back to school and suffered terrible stomach pain and intestinal problems that kept him up night after night. He lost almost 10 pounds, felt awful, struggled to practice golf because of weakness and exhaustion. His spring break was spent getting various medical tests trying to determine the cause of his stomach problems.

Then add to that a really demanding academic workload that at times caused him to grow discouraged and overwhelmed. He spent many a night, all night long, studying or writing papers for his courses. He never complained, but my husband and I felt almost desperate at the incredibly rigorous work load he carried, along with trying to play a college sport. His golf had suffered because of his physical problems as well as the heavy work load, and all in all, it had been a tough semester.

But we prayed, and our dear friends prayed. Praise the Lord, the doctors determined the cause of his stomach difficulties, and medicine and dietary changes largely cleared up the problems. The work load remained daunting, but slowly the Lord enabled him to get the seemingly impossible amount of papers and tests completed.

He had one last college golf tournament for the year--his school's conference championship. He had struggled in all the tournaments for the spring, and so one would expect more of the same for the conference championship. With all he had been through, what more you could expect? And good or bad, Richard sought to play and live every day to the glory of God and trust the results with the Lord.

But as I said at the beginning, He truly is the God of the impossible! I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say, Richard had an army of prayer warriors lifting him up all three days of the tournament! I kept coming back to Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory...." He is able! He is able! He is able! His arm is not too short, and there just simply is nothing, absolutely nothing, that He cannot do!

And if it is His will that a young freshman from Davidson College would, despite all evidence to the contrary, win a conference championship so that God could be glorified, well, then it would happen! There simply was no other explanation for how well he played other than the fact that God enabled and empowered him. It reminded me of something our wonderful pastor shared a couple of weeks ago. Leon Tucker challenged us to live in such a way that others would declare, "They live so well, because they live for Him." It truly could be said of Richard at that tournament, "He played so well, because He played for the King." And if the King wills the impossible, then it will be so!

I know this is just a college tournament, and in the big scheme of life, it's pretty inconsequential. But when we witness God do the impossible in some small arena of life, we can't help but be encouraged and inspired to see what He can and will do in all the other arenas of our lives. If He could do this, then can't He heal that irretrievably broken relationship or redeem that terrible failure or strengthen that fragile weakness? If He can do the impossible, then can't He bring hope to even the most hopeless or helpless of places and bring ultimate good and glory out of the most horrific and heartbreaking of tragedies?

And if He can suffer the absolute worst that sin and satan could hurl upon Him on that cross and then rise to new life on Easter morning, bringing eternal, abundant, joyful life to all who believe in Him, well, then what can't He do?! He is the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, and He is the Lion of Judah before whom every single knee in heaven and on earth shall one day bow. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Redeemer, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Word, the Great I AM, the Good Shepherd, the Great High Priest, the Bread of Life, the Living Water.... I could go on and on... but He is my Saviour and He is, mark it down, the God of the impossible! And to Him be the glory forever and ever.