Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
A statement caught my eye recently by Phillips Brooks. “Pray the largest prayers. You cannot think a prayer so large that God, in answering it, will not with you had made it larger. Pray not for crutches but for wings!” I’ve been guilty of praying some pretty flimsy prayers. Some ridiculously short prayers. Certainly some weakened prayers. Why don’t we pray for great big answers?
The Prayer of Jabez caught national attention when Bruce Wilkinson brought to life the fact that Jabez asked God to enlarge his territory! Well, why not? Why not ask God to do the impossible – for nothing is impossible with God!
Habakkuk took God seriously. He trusted that even though the world had gone “stark-raving-mad,” God was in control and able to do for him what he could not do for himself. When’s the last time you took God seriously? When’s the last time you took a child-like faith and placed it on the bosom of an all-loving God and believed beyond belief that He could handle your problem? When’s the last time that you stood on the edge of a cliff, inhaled deeply, and took a leap of faith (not presumption!!) and knew that your Father would catch you?
The next time you find yourself up against an impossible situation, know that God will make it possible for you if it is His will to do so. The next time you find yourself in prayer, make it a big one. A really big one. A huge mammoth-sized, gargantuous prayer of monstrous proportions. Then wait, in faith, for God to answer you.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stall, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to go on the heights. Habakkuk 3: 17 – 19 (NIV)