Encouragements for our troubled times No. 14
COVID-19 Series | Date: 25 June 2020
The Elders and Deacons want to encourage the members and those who regularly meet with us through this weekly letter. If you have news which you would be happy to share with the fellowship or request for prayer, then please let us know.
A message from your Pastor
Mark 10:27
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
Here we are, still unable to meet together for worship and fellowship, still having to engage in remote worship over the internet and no date for when we might see an end to this. For all intents and purposes, the Church does not seem to figure in the Governments list of priorities. We seem to have been forgotten in the rush for economic stability and man’s worldly pursuits. But we must not despair, even though we may have been forgotten by everyone else, our God hasn’t forgotten us and will, in spite of men, work all for our good.
In our text this week we are reminded that there is nothing and no situation that we can find ourselves in, that is impossible for God.
Firstly, this is in the context of those who are lost. They may be in rebellion and hard-hearted. They may be given over to sin or the things of this world. They may even be ardent disciples of some evil religion. It may be impossible for us to speak to them or reach them with the Gospel; but nothing is impossible with God. Now, this does not mean that those who we pray for will all necessarily be saved. There will be those who continue in their sin and rebellion and perish. But, what it does mean is that when God chooses to work in a soul and bring them to salvation, there is nothing that can stop Him or hinder Him in saving that soul. With man it may be impossible, but not with God.
Secondly, this statement is not limited to the work of redemption because it is a general statement about God’s ability. Nothing is impossible with Him because with Him all things are possible. In other words, the impossible does not exist as far as God is concerned. God created the whole universe and this world in which we live from nothing. Man says that’s impossible because all that man can do is ‘create’ from material that already exists. With man it is impossible; but not with the Almighty, with Him all things are possible. We look at the hard hearts of men and we despair of ever reaching them. We say to ourselves ‘their too hard, it’s impossible to reach them.’ But is anyone too hard for God? Look at Saul, the persecutor of the Church. God took that hard heart of stone and in a moment melted it into a heart of flesh and made him into Paul the Apostle of His Church. Our God is the one who flooded the whole world with water, who parted the Red Sea and dried up the sea bed so that His people could pass safely across. Our God walked on the turbulent sea, stilled the storm, healed the sick and raised the dead. Nothing is impossible with Him.
So as we look at our present predicament we should not despair but remember nothing is impossible with our God.