Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

As Christians, we theoretically believe in miracles. But have you ever actually witnessed a miracle?

I was at a conference this past weekend and one of the speakers mentioned that when we experience impossible situations in our lives, we tend to scratch and claw our way out of those situations through any means possible. As much as we believe in theory that God is capable of taking care of every detail of our lives, we are hesitant to test that theory. After all, it IS our own necks that we’re experimenting with here. Maybe we know that He can handle the circumstances, but are unwilling to accept His plan. It might turn out to be something that isn’t part of our ultimate vision for our own lives.

As Christians we will inevitably go through hard times, but through every trial, we must remember that God is there to make sure we come out spiritually victorious. Does it feel like there’s no hope for your specific situation? Remember that our God has never lost a battle. He works in ways we can’t see, and uses each circumstance in a believer’s life to impact our faith, the lives of those within our sphere of influence and ultimately always to bring glory to Himself.

I love the story of Abraham (Abram). This man went through some impossible situations, but God was ever-present in his story, just as He is with us in our impossible situations. Abraham was called by God to leave his home and his family to go into a foreign land; Abraham answered the calling and in doing so, he received a covenant blessing from God. He was about 75 years old when he received the promise of God that his descendants would become a great nation, but by the time the promise was to be fulfilled, his wife was well past child-bearing age.

We see Abraham and Sarah desperately trying to fulfill the plan of God through conventional wisdom.

And Abraham said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abraham believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:2-6)

So here we see Abraham believing that the offspring will be of his own flesh, and the Lord crediting it to him as righteousness. But soon, we see that Sarah is able to sway Abraham into thinking that the child will be of Abraham’s blood, but maybe not of her own. In order to resolve the situation, Sarah suggests that maybe God meant for Abraham to have a child through her Egyptian slave, Hagar.

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” (Genesis 17:17) Note the faithlessness of Abraham here. His faith was so strong just a few chapters before, but he believed that what God promised him was impossible (now that he was old) and laughed. God once again affirms that his plan is that Abraham will be the father of a great nation through Sarah.

It’s natural as humans to want to apply human wisdom to the situations that seem impossible in our lives. In fact, many have lost their faith while going through intense trials in their lives. If you’re going through something today that seems like an impossible situation and your back is up against the wall, remember that what you’re going through is something that God can handle. What is impossible for you is possible for God.

Satan will try to convince you that God isn’t hearing your prayers. He will bring every negative thought to your mind and do everything within his power to extinguish your faith. Don’t let him do it! The Lord is not content for us to just understand in theory that nothing is too hard for the Lord. He wants us to have the overwhelming joy of experiencing it! But the sometimes agonizing period between his promise and his provision can push us to the brink of what we think we believe, as it did for Abraham and Sarah.

There are times when God orders our circumstances in such a way that from a human standpoint his promises are impossible to fulfill. And if at that point we find these promises almost unbelievable, as did Abraham and Sarah, what God has exposed are the boundaries of our faith — boundaries he means to expand.

Resting in the promises of God is learned in the ring when we wrestle with unbelief — seasons, sometimes long seasons, when everything hangs on believing that God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans 4:17) and there is no safety net.

If you’re in such a circumstance, as difficult as it feels, God is being incredibly kind to you because such circumstances are when we really learn that nothing is too hard for the Lord. In the end, the joy in God that results will make the agony that you’re enduring not even worth comparing…and you’ll have witnessed a life changing miracle.