God specializes in the impossible. Just read His word and see all the amazing things He has done for His people since creation. However, God does not work in the possible. Not that God doesn’t do things that make sense but the simple truth is God is not going to come in and do what you could already do for yourself. God is willing and able to do so much for you but at the same time, He expects you to do some things for yourself.
If you want to overcome sin or addiction you will need to put in your share of work. God may be the great physician but that doesn’t also make Him the great magician. Making everything just disappear with the wave of His magic wand. His own word tells you to remove the thing that causes you to sin from your life. God isn’t going to force the phone, needle, person, or bottle that keeps causing you to sin out of your life. That is something you will have to do for yourself. God will give you the strength to battle temptation and show you the way out but at the end of the day, you will still have to make the choice not to live in sin.
Matthew 5:29–30 (ESV)
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
God told the Israelites that He would bless their harvest. Promising them bountiful crops but in order for those crops to be produced in the way God promised the people still had to do their part. Every year they still needed to work the land. Preparing it, sowing it, and caring for it as the crops grew. God would take care of what they couldn’t, that being just how much the fields would produce. Yet the people still had to do their part in getting the crops to the point that they could grow. Had they not planted the field there would have been nothing for God to bless
Leviticus 26:3–5 (ESV)
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
Deuteronomy 7:13 (ESV)
13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
It is no different for us today. As we serve God unexplainable blessings will enter our lives but they will find their foundation in what we are able to do for ourselves. Those who are blessed financially didn’t pray a prayer and wake up the next day with more money. They served God daily while also working every day. Eventually, they saw an increase that looking back could have only been orchestrated by God. Because there’s no other way to explain just how they got to where they are. When you are out of work the right job isn’t just going to find you if you aren’t applying. But if you put in the work God may lead you to the right job at just the right time.
So many Christians want to live in this “take take take” version of Christianity in which God just gives everything you need. While you simply sit back and take it. But that’s not how it works with serving God. The expectation is that you will always do your part then God will meet what you have done with His blessings. Just think about how the church got where it is today. God didn’t look down and say “oh they need some buildings” and cause them to appear out of thin air. But He did look down and see groups of believers who wanted to give sacrificially in order to have a great place to worship. Then proceeded to bless the work He saw taking place. Resulting in making buildings being built in ways that when you really look into the circumstances simply don’t make sense.
In the eyes of the world, a small group of middle-class people giving enough to build a multimillion-dollar campus without any debt is impossible. But that is the story for many churches across the country and the globe. Such as First Apostolical Church in Maryville, Tn. With men, it would have been impossible but with God all things are possible. He is able to take the little we put in, press it down, shake it together, and pour out more than we could have ever imagined just as His word says. But the key in it is that first something must be put in to be multiplied.
Luke 6:38 (ESV)
38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
We all have needs in our lives that we would like God to meet. Often we wonder why God seems to not be hearing our prayers. Couldn’t it be that there is something we could do for ourselves to meet that need? Isn’t it possible God has already given you everything you need to do what you think only He can do? Trust and rely solely on God but don’t live as though you are helpless.
If you are struggling with sin make sure that you aren’t allowing yourself to always end up in the places that cause you to sin. If you need healing don’t only pray for yourself but seek the prayers of the church as the scripture calls for. Go to the doctor believing that God is able to use them just as well as He can use anything else.
James 5:13–16 (ESV)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
If you need a blessing in your finances, of course, pray for God’s blessing. But don’t forget to pray for wisdom. As James wrote, let the one who needs wisdom ask for it. God can show you the right path to take in your finances. Maybe it is time to let go of some things you don’t need in order to afford what you do. No matter what, keep giving to God of your first fruits and see the promise of blessings flow out as the Bible says.
Malachi 3:10 (ESV)
10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
2 Corinthians 9:6 (ESV)
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Are you kids lost and wandering in this world without a right relationship with God? Then keep praying for God to reach them where they are. While you pray for God to move, do your part to reach out to them in the love, gentleness, and kindness described in scripture. Don’t condemn their actions in the world but extend the very same things that the Lord extended to you when you were wandering. They may just need to feel the love of God extend through you to pull them back to the life they walked away from.
Ephesians 4:32 (ESV)
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Colossians 3:12 (ESV)
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
2 Timothy 2:25 (ESV)
25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
Philippians 2:5–7 (ESV)
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
I don’t know what you are going through right now or what you have been seeking God to do. But whatever it may be I know there is always a role you can play. It may not seem like what you have to put in is enough, but God is able to take whatever you have and bless it beyond what you can imagine. Just step out in faith and do the things you are able to do. Then you will see God meet the possible with the impossible doing the things that you never could have done on your own.
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