journey onWord with us

It happened just over a week ago. A small group of men and I were sitting around a table sharing some prayer requests. It was a casual, light-hearted group until men started sharing. Requests came that had that impossible feel from a human perspective. However, prayer should never be viewed with human logic. But how many people pray with a strong view of God’s power, and real confidence that He will answer? Or is it more typical that prayer is words spoken in a heavenly direction out of obligation and wishful thinking (although we certainly wouldn’t admit it), without much confidence in the outcome? Where would you stand on the prayer confidence meter?

If you are feeling a bit weak in your personal prayer life, confidence can return today. God has designed for Christ-followers to pray, and He relishes the opportunity to share in our impossibilities. In reading the verse of a song that I learned as a child, I was challenged and refreshed about bringing my impossibilities to the Father.

Got any rivers you think are uncrossable;
Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?
God specializes in things tho’t impossible;
He does things others cannot do.

excerpt from Got Any Rivers, Oscar C. Eliason, copyright 1945

You, no doubt, have some uncrossable rivers before you right now, and so do I. There may even be some mountains of difficulty staring you right in the face. When we are not firm and steadfast in our view of God’s power, impossibilities look …well, impossible. The old song says that God specializes in things that are impossible. Can we believe it, or are those words just wishful thinking? Experience has taught me that those who pray earnestly with confident faith, see God do “things others cannot do”. Are you ready to experience Him doing that in your life?

Jeremiah the prophet affirmed our assertion in Jeremiah 32:17 with the words, “Ah Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” Are those words wishful thinking, or are they blocks of granite to build our prayer life upon? The answer is certain, but our times of prayer often don’t reflect their certainty. Later in the same chapter, the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”

Jeremiah prayed it, God affirmed it, and let’s just be simple enough to believe it. Nothing is too hard for God! I have lived long enough to see how God does the impossible for those who obey His Word, and simply trust Him. I have also lived long enough to know that Christians often pray with wishful thinking, but rarely with confidence.

Is your prayer life firmly rooted in the truth that nothing is too hard for Him? If you are anything like me, there are times that we get it. Those times are special, and quite profound. They are times of river crossings and mountain passes. There is no wishful thinking in the truth of God’s Word, and there should be no wishful thinking in our prayer lives. Nothing is too Hard for Him. I believe that My God can do the impossible for my prayer group. . .  and for you!