Sometimes we come to impasses in our lives for which there simply are no human solutions. There are some mountains we simply cannot move. There are some problems we just cannot resolve. There are some situations so dire and so desperate that only God can help us—because only a miracle would make a difference. Jesus taught us that God the Father is eager to give us good gifts, and I believe that miracles are among those good gifts. In fact, when a person comes to know and trust God, nothing is impossible, and nothing is unimaginable. There are no limits to a life lived from a deep, abiding trust.
I don’t know what circumstance you are facing right now or how impossible it might feel. But I know what it is to feel surrounded, as if you face not one but five enemy armies, and there is trouble on every side. I know what it is to exhaust every natural, reasonable option in front of you, only to have things get exponentially worse instead of better. I know the despair and discouragement that can set in when you have done everything you know how to do, and yet nothing changes.
But I also know the God who can make the sun stand still, as He did in Joshua’s day, and who is willing to arrest time itself to come to our aid. I know that this God answers prayer and loves to give good gifts to His children. Jesus said:
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him (Matt. 7:7-11).
Pause to breathe in those words for just a moment. Let them fill you up. Can you feel the truth of these words? God loves to give His kids good gifts; He is on pins and needles just waiting for you to ask. Nothing, absolutely nothing you will ever ask is too difficult for God to do, and there are no lengths to which He is unwilling to go to demonstrate the depths of His love for you.
It sounds painfully simple, but I believe it comes down to this: God is waiting for us to ask. God is waiting for a woman or man with the hope, fire, trust and audacity to ask for something outrageous, to recognize that our rules do not bind Him. Making the sun stand still wasn’t meant to be a one-off moment in history but a moment to embody the all-encompassing power of God that is always available to God’s daughters and sons at any place and time in history! These miracles, too, are part of the order of the new normal.
Whatever you are thinking of right now, the thing you are almost afraid to ask—it may be big, but I promise you, it’s not too big for God. {eoa}
Excerpted from Chapter 10 of New Normal by John Lindell (Charisma House, 2021).
Pastor John Lindell is devoted to seeing the local church thrive and standing boldly for the cause of Christ. His heart for God and people is evident and exampled in his leadership at James River Church in Springfield, Missouri.
