God wants us to ask Him for the impossible! God can do things that man cannot do. He would not be God if this were not so. That is why He has graciously made prayer a law of life. “If ye shall ask . . . I will do” (John 14:14 KJV). This inviting promise from the Lord means that He will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves; He will do for others what we cannot do for them— if we but ask Him. How little do we avail ourselves of this immense privilege!

Someone spoke this searching word at Edinburgh in 1910: “We have lost the eternal youthfulness of Christianity and have aged into calculating manhood. We seldom pray in earnest for the extraordinary, the limitless, the glorious. We seldom pray with any confidence, for any good to the realization of which we cannot imagine a way. And yet, we suppose ourselves to believe in an Infinite Father.”

The natural man calculates results. Calculations have no place in our relation with God.

That matter which has been so burdening us just now, and with which we can see no way of dealing, how are we praying about it? In anxiety, or with thanksgiving?

Worrying prayer defeats its own answer; rejoicing prayer gets through. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). Then will come the answer “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).

The more we are cut off from human help, the greater claim we can make on Divine help. The more impossible a thing is to human or mortal power, the more at peace can we be when we look to Him for deliverance. Only those who see the invisible can do the impossible!

God will answer when to thee, Not a possibility Of deliverance seems near; It is then He will appear.

God will answer when you pray; Yea, though mountains block thy way, At His word, a way will be E’en through mountains, made for thee.

God who still divides the sea, Willingly will work for thee; God, before whom mountains fall, Promises to hear thy call.

M. E. B.

The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:11). But we must be prepared to wait on God’s timing. His timing is precise, for He does things “at the very time” He has set. It is not for us to know His timing, and in fact we cannot know it—we must wait for it.

If God had told Abraham while he was in Haran that he would have to wait thirty years before holding his promised child in his arms, his heart might have failed him. So God, as an act of His gracious love, hid from Abraham the number of weary years he would be required to wait. Only as the time was approaching, with but a few months left to wait, did God reveal His promise: “At the appointed time next year . . . Sarah will have a son” (Genesis 18:14). The “appointed time” came at last, and soon the joyous laughter that filled the patriarch’s home caused the now elderly couple to forget their long and tiring wait.

So take heart, dear child, when God requires you to wait. The One you wait for will not disappoint you. He will never be even five minutes behind “the appointed time.” And soon “your grief will turn to joy” (John 16:20).

Oh, how joyful the soul that God brings to laughter! Then sorrow and crying flee forever, as darkness flees the dawn.

As passengers, it is not for us to interfere with the charts and the compass. We should leave the masterful Captain alone to do His own work. ROBERT HALL

Some things cannot be accomplished in a day. Even God does not make a glorious sunset in a moment. For several days He gathers the mist with which to build His beautiful palaces in the western sky.

Some glorious morn—but when? Ah, who will say?

The steepest mountain will become a plain, And the parched land be satisfied with rain.

The gates of brass all broken; iron bars, Transfigured, form a ladder to the stars.

Rough places plain, and crooked ways all straight, For him who with a patient heart can wait.

These things will be on God’s appointed day: It may not be tomorrow—yet it may.

This is God’s loving challenge to you and me each day. He wants us to think of the deepest, highest, and worthiest desires and longings of our hearts. He wants us to think of those things that perhaps were desires for ourselves or someone dear to us, yet have gone unfulfilled for so long that we now see them as simply lost desires. And God urges us to think of even the one thing that we once saw as possible but have given up all hope of seeing fulfilled in this life.

That very thing, as long as it aligns with what we know to be His expressed will—as a son was to Abraham and Sarah—God intends to do for us. Yes, if we will let Him, God will do that very thing, even if we know it is such an utter impossibility that we would simply laugh at the absurdity of anyone ever suggesting it could come to pass.

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” No, nothing is too difficult when we believe in Him enough to go forward, doing His will and letting Him do the impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God’s plan if they had continued to disbelieve.

The only thing “too hard for the LORD” is our deliberate and continual disbelief in His love and power, and our ultimate rejection of His plans for us. Nothing is impossible for Jehovah to do for those who trust Him.

I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause.

Is anything too hard for the Lord ?—Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.—Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.—Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord , and spread it before the Lord . And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord .

It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.—The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

Have faith in God. Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.—Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

He that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.—Being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Is any thing too hard for the Lord ?—With God all things are possible.—Lord, increase our faith.

He is able . . . to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.—Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.—He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.—Is any thing too hard for the Lord !

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.