Week 6: With God All Things are Possible
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” — Matthew 19:26
The disciple Peter witnessed first-hand many of Jesus’ most incredible miracles during his earthly ministry. He saw Him cast out demons (Mark 1:21-27). He saw Him feed five thousand families with only five loaves of bread and two fish (Matthew 14:16-21). He even watched as Jesus, in His physical body, walked on water (Matthew 14:25).
Surely witnessing such power gave Peter a strong faith, as evidenced in Peter’s actions immediately after seeing Jesus walk on water: he asked for the invitation to do the same:
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” (Matthew 14:28–29)
So Peter took a step, then another. His faith buoyed him—he had already seen Jesus intervene upon the laws of nature for good ends; and after all, doesn’t it make perfect sense that the One who made the laws of nature can do with them what He wills?
But a few steps later, Peter began doubt that Jesus could sustain him. He believed more in the likelihood that he would flail beneath the waves than the assurance from Christ that he could walk on top of them.
Too often, we, like Peter, succumb to the fear of what we can see instead of responding with faith—which by definition is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Our default seems to be to trust what is visible before us rather than to fix our eyes on the truth that “[God] can do all things, and that no purpose of [His] can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).
Jesus told his followers—that includes us!—to pray for the Father’s will to be done. We know that His will for every human being that He creates in their mothers’ wombs is for that human being to be protected, to be treated with the dignity their personhood demands, and to come to know and worship Him. But the political battle to continue our nation’s bloody legacy of legalized abortion seems daunting.
However, just as Jesus’ words had the power to command even the stormtossed seas, God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power that is at work in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Overcoming a powerful, multimillion-dollar political campaign is impossible by our strength alone. Yet, with God all things are possible.
This week, pray boldly knowing that we worship the one true God of the Universe, a good, kind God who is able to do anything He wills. Pray that the abortion ballot initiative is resoundingly defeated in Ohio and serves as a springboard to topple similar initiatives nationwide. Pray also that the Lord will soften hearts to see the deadly reality of abortion and cause a culture of life, in which abortion is not only illegal but unthinkable, to spread throughout our country.
Jeremiah 32:17 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.
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear...
Mark 9:23–24 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Hebrews 6:17–20 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf...
Colossians 1:10–11 …walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy...
Romans 8:31–32 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
