“I WILL BE WITH YOU”

At the unburning bush, God said to Moses, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10). To which Moses replied, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (v. 11). Here may be the most beautiful and powerful part of the whole encounter. Behold God’s answer to Moses’s question: “I will be with you” (v. 12).

God did not tell Moses why he was selected for the mission. He didn’t say a single word about Moses’s qualifications or lack thereof. God did not attempt to build up Moses’s sense of self-worth or credibility or give him a pep talk or say, “You can do this, Moses!” The answer to Moses asking “Who am I?” was God stating, “I will be with you.”

In the face of impossible things and insurmountable challenges, God doesn’t ask us to go and develop a strategic plan and then raise a gazillion dollars to make it happen. The truth? If it can be done with a strategic plan and a gazillion dollars, it’s not big enough for God.

Get back in touch with the moment. The God of the cosmos made an appearance through an unburning bush on the far side of the wilderness to an octogenarian sheep herder and said he was sending him to rescue and deliver a nation of a million or more slaves from their oppressor -- a man who happened to be the most powerful person in the world leading the most powerful nation on the planet.

And to all of our quandaries about impossible things and our quizzical inquiries about improbable outcomes, God responds with: “I will be with you.” 

-- Excerpted from “Wake-Up Call” with J. D. Walt

#6138

THE RESURRECTION IS THE GAME-CHANGER

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9)

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the axis around which our faith revolves.  When Jesus rose from the dead, it radically redefined reality.  When He walked out of the tomb under His own power, the word impossible was removed from our vocabulary.  The resurrection is the history-changer, the game-changer.  But the trick is learning to live as if Jesus was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is coming back tomorrow!

The resurrection isn’t something we celebrate once a year by donning an Easter bonnet.  It’s something we celebrate every day in every way…  God raises dreams from the dead.  He resurrects dead relationships.  And no matter what part of your personality has died at the hands of sin or suffering or Satan himself, the Grave Robber came to give you your life back!

-- Mark Batterson in “The Grave Robber”

#4573

FACING IMMOVABLE MOUNTAINS

Jesus told them, "I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."  (Matthew 17:20 NLT)

If you are facing a problem that seems as big and immovable as a mountain, turn your eyes from the mountain and look to Christ for more faith. Only then will you be able to overcome the obstacles that may stand in your way.

-- Life Application Bible


#4191

PRAYER POSSIBILITIES

To the Infinite all finites are equal. There is no easy or difficult, big or small, possible or impossible. To an omnipotent God, there are no degrees of difficulty.


Anything is possible. Nothing is impossible.


When I need a miracle, I have a tendency to pray louder and longer. I sometimes even pray in King James English like a Shakespearean playwright. Or I pull out some of the Greek words I learned in seminary. But God is unimpressed with our theological words and oratorical cadence. He hears our heart more than our words. He responds to faith, not vocabulary.


-- Mark Batterson in The Grave Robber




#3881

ALWAYS A NEXT STEP

Jesus once said that with God, all things are possible, and the great thing about life with God is that your next step is always possible.  That step toward God is always waiting, no matter what you have done or how you have messed up your life.  Jesus was hanging on a cross with a thief hanging next to Him, and Jesus turned to him and said, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”

There is always a next step.

-- John Ortberg in The Me I Want To Be

#3826

SEEING POSSIBILITIES

Jesus said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities -- always see them, for they're always there.

-- Norman Vincent Peale

#3648

EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…" (Ephesians 3:20 WEB)

Is there such a thing as an "impossible dream"?  One small-minded man living in the nineteenth century believed so.  When asked if he thought it would be possible for men to fly in the air like birds, he responded skeptically, "Flight is strictly reserved for the angels, and I beg you not to repeat your suggestion lest you be guilty of blasphemy!"  Ironically, the man was Milton Wright, father of Orville and Wilbur -- two men who dreamed big dreams.  Only thirty years later near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made their first flight in a heavier-than-air machine, the prototype for modern airplanes.  They proved that impossible dreams can come true.

The apostle Paul wanted Christians to believe that the impossible is possible with God.  He wanted them to understand that impossible prayers can come true through the ability of a God who can do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think.  Go ahead, dream big dreams, then pray impossible prayers.  God can make them soar!

-- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians


#3541

THE LIVING GOD OF THE UNIVERSE

God is full of surprises. Mere superficial pressures never determine life's outcome… If you are intimately linked with the living God of the universe, you don't need to worry about what the crowd is doing -- or even what the king is doing. The same God who created the world is able to carry you through and to work out every situation of your life, no matter how impossible it may seem.

-- Ray Stedman in Adventuring Through the Bible


#3490

DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE

Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27)

Child of God, learn a family secret. God specializes in things we think are totally impossible.

-- Charles Swindoll


#3488

IMPOSSIBILITIES MADE INTO POSSIBILITIES

The whole ministry of Jesus was framed by impossibilities…incarnation and resurrection…a virgin birth and an empty tomb. Someone once said, Jesus came into the world through a door marked “no entrance,” a virgin womb. He left through a door marked “no exit”, a tomb of death. Two great impossibilities made possible in Jesus Christ. Nobody had ever walked through those doors before. In Jesus Christ, the world’s greatest impossibilities are made into possibilities. 

-- Timothy Tennett, President of Asbury Seminary, in his charge to graduates, May 2012


#3171