In Genesis 18 God confronts Abraham by the Oak's of Mamre, telling him that he will have a son within the year even though Sarah is beyond childbearing age. When Sarah doubts, God reminds them that nothing is too hard for Him. If He wants to give Sarah a baby in her old age, He will. Nothing will stop the Creator, Sustainer, Healer, and Savior of the universe from doing what He claims. His promise to Abraham will be fulfilled. Indeed, as you work through the text, you see God's promise realized (Gen. 21). Within the year Sarah gives Abraham his promised son.

Knowing God Can Do the Impossible Should Affect the Way We Live

Knowing God can do the impossible, that nothing is too hard for Him, should affect the way we live. I can’t talk about all the ways it should affect our lives, so let me give you three areas it should affect.

(1) Our prayer life

Probably most of you know someone or have read a story of someone who was diagnosed with a disease or cancer. Upon finding out the news their church began to pray for them. Then some time later, when they went to the doctor for a checkup, the tumor or disease was gone. The doctors couldn’t explain it. It just disappeared.

If we are honest with ourselves, if I am honest with myself, our first thought, when we hear something like that is that the initial tests had to be wrong. They really didn’t have that disease, or cancer, to begin with.

But why do we think that? Why do we think that has to be the case? Why can’t we believe and celebrate the fact that God answered prayer and healed that person? I believe it is because we put limits on God. We think God has to operate in the same way we operate; that He is governed and limited by this world, just like we are.

When we place limits on God, our prayer life suffers. We either don’t pray for big things, like someone to be healed or if we pray for them, we doubt it is going to happen.

But knowing who our God is should give us the confidence to ask without doubting (Jas. 1:5-8). If He wants to heal someone from cancer or a debilitating disease, nothing can stop Him, so we shouldn’t be afraid to pray for things we might consider out of the ordinary, big things. Nothing is too hard for the Lord and knowing that should affect our prayer life.

(2) Our evangelism

At the Together for the Gospel conference I attended back in 2014, one of the speakers preached a sermon entitled: Can your Gospel Save a Terrorist? His answer was yes. God can and does save terrorists. Think about Paul, one of the greatest persecutors of the church. Yet on the road to Damascus God broke into his life, revealed the truth about Jesus, and changed his heart, so that he believed.

Knowing that God can save even those we deem too far gone, should affect our evangelism. It should give us confidence and boldness. It should keep us from judging a person's likelihood to become a Christian based on their background or their current practices. If God can save Paul, a terrorist, He can save drug dealers, rapists, serial killers, gangsters, hoodlums and the like. He can save us because we are no different. We are all sinners who need Jesus. Our God is a powerful God. Nothing is too hard for Him.

(3) Our giving

Recently, I came across an article with a shocking and revealing statistic. Church members on average only give 2.5% of their income [1]. I don’t quote that statistic to guilt you into giving more to the church. I bring it up because it reveals something about our heart. Either we are lured and enticed by the possessions of this world so that we spend our money on them. Or we squirrel everything back believing that money provides security.

Certainly, there is wisdom in saving, and there is nothing wrong with having things, but we can’t allow the possessions of this world or our fear of the future to get in the way of our giving. We must believe God truly satisfies and that He has the ability to provide. When we believe those things, we will be freed to give radically; to invest in the kingdom in a way that we haven’t been able to do before.

[1] https://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/what-would-happen-if-church-tithed