| Written by Pastor Ricky Saulters, Rockwall, Tx, on Saturday, 24 May 2008 |
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She was the sole passenger aboard a Dutch freighter, and the violent seas had made her seasick, but Corrie ten Boom, Holocaust survivor and global missionary, was determined to conduct services in the mess room. The captain dutifully posted the announcement, and promptly at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, Corrie showed up to find no one there, only a lad from the kitchen bringing her coffee. “Are you going to stay?” Corrie asked him, “I have a very interesting story to tell you.”
“I don’t want to hear that nonsense,” said the boy who turned and left.
Plopping into a chair, Corrie said, “I never saw so empty a church, just a cup of coffee and myself.” She returned to her cabin weary and discouraged, and on the next Sunday she decided to abandon her efforts. “Lord, I am not a missionary,” she prayed. “Send me back to my watchmaking business.”
Just then she opened her Bible to find a piece of paper. She’d never seen it before and didn’t know where it had come from. The little poem said:
Cowardly, wayward, and weak,
I change with the changing sky,
Today so eager and strong,
Tomorrow not caring to try.
But He never gives in,
And we two shall win,
…Jesus and I
Corrie later recalled: “Instantly I see it! I am not worthy at all. The branch without the Vine cannot produce fruit, but I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. The strongest and the weakest branches are worth nothing without the Vine; but connecting to it they have the same nature.”
Enlisting the efforts of the captain, Corrie planned another Sunday service; and this time ten men showed up—even the boy from the mess hall who, as he was leaving, admitted, “It was not boring at all!”
Corrie’s lesson reminds us that the same Bible in which Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), quotes the apostle Paul, proclaiming, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). By ourselves we can never overcome bad habits, build churches, convert souls, or influence lives. We’re unable to manage our tempers, our appetites, or our finances in a godly way. There’s nothing we can do for Christ in our own power.
But Jesus and us—well, that’s a different story. We can do all things through Him who strengthens us.
Interestingly, when Paul made that statement in Philippians 4:13 about doing all things through Christ, he was referring to being able to manage his own attitude. “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content,” he said, writing from prison. “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound . . . I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
How fascinating! Paul wasn’t talking about preaching to vast crowds, planting large churches, or wielding great influence, though God also allowed him to do those things. He was saying, “I can fulfill God’s will through Christ’s strength. I can do whatever He commands; indeed, I can even be content in chains.”
Do you want to go through the remainder of this year with a better attitude? Want to be content? To be hopeful? Optimistic? To be cheerful and refreshing to others, come what may? To do great things for Christ? To win souls? To reach teens? To care for an invalid entrusted into your care or a bevy of preschoolers clutching your apron?
With God, nothing is impossible; and He can display His strength through you.
Impossible Quotes This secret has fueled the lives of God’s workers in every generation. Thomas à Kempis, the medieval German monk, wrote, “O Lord, let that which seems naturally impossible to me become possible through Your grace.”
Commentator Matthew Henry said, “In all conflicts, let us remember that with God nothing is impossible; and as we read and hear His promises, let us turn them into prayers.”
Missionary Amy Carmichael told her workers, “When you are facing the impossible, you can count on the God of the impossible.”
Missionary statesman J. Oswald Sanders, wrote, “(God) encourages us to ask as freely for the impossible as for the possible since to Him all difficulties are the same size—less than himself.”
Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest, “When once we see Jesus, He does the impossible thing as naturally as breathing.”
The dean of American prayer writers, E. M. Bounds, wrote, “Faith does the impossible because it brings God to undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God.”
Chuck Swindoll said, “The One who directed that stone in between Goliath’s eyes and split the Red Sea down the middle and leveled that wall around Jericho and brought His Son back from beyond takes delight in mixing up the odds as He alters the inevitable and bypasses the impossible.”
Evangelist Michael Guido preached, “You cannot bring a burden too heavy for God to lift or a problem too hard for Him to solve or a request too big for Him to answer. God does things no one else can do.”
Charles Spurgeon, the Victorian Prince of Preachers, once thundered from his pulpit, “When you are dealing with Him who is omnipotent, faithful, and true, the things that seem utterly impossible will be those most likely to happen.”
Charles Wesley, studying Abraham’s faith as described in Romans 4:13, wrote a hymn of eleven verses about it, the most popular stanza of which says:
Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to (God) alone;
Laughs at life's impossibilities,
And cries, “It shall be done!” And listen to this quote by Warren Wiersbe: “Our faith is not really tested until God asks us to bear what seems unbearable, do what seems unreasonable, and expect what seems impossible.”
Kingdom Concept: Take one of these “impossible quotes” and make it your slogan for the rest of this year. Learn to leave room for God and to partner with Him, for He alone can storm the impregnable, devise the improbable, and perform the impossible. For with God…”
This isn’t just a matter of “possibility thinking” or maintaining a positive attitude. It isn’t a “can do” philosophy of believing “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” It’s a matter of trusting Jesus Christ to enable us to accomplish His will for our lives, whatever that entails.
After all, it was Jesus himself who said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God . . . With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible . . . If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Luke 18:27; Mark 10:27; Mark 9:23).
As Gabriel told the Virgin Mary before the birth of Christ: “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
What does this mean for you and me? It means He can enable you to keep your resolutions when they are prayerfully made and grounded in His Word. It means He can enable you to be content in your circumstances, trusting Him to do His part to bring about victory.
One woman, for example, fretted and worried about her wayward children until she grasped this truth. “We mothers must take care of the possible,” she wrote, “and trust God for the impossible. We are to love, affirm, encourage, teach, listen and care for the physical needs of the family. We cannot convict of sin, create hunger and thirst after God, or convert. These are miracles, and miracles are not in our department.” 4
Perhaps you have a problem only God can solve, and this is the time to trust it into His super-capable hands. Or perhaps God has called you to begin a new ministry—teaching a Bible study, leading in children’s church, or serving on your church’s visitation team. Think of what missionary heroine Mary Slessor prayed as she began her work in Calabar: “Lord, the task is impossible for me but not for Thee. Lead the way, and I will follow. Why should I fear? I am on a Royal Mission. I am in the service of the King of Kings.”
The word “impossible” isn’t found in heaven’s dictionaries; and our job is to do our best, letting the Lord do the rest. Look for situations where you can have an impact. Look for lives you can influence. Seek out places where you can serve. And remember what Corrie ten Boom read many years ago on a slip of paper tucked into her Bible: He never gives in, and we two shall win . . . Jesus and me.
Last update: Saturday, 24 May 2008
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