Don’t Forget the P.S.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Abraham and Sarah would soon have a hundred candles on their cake. They had no children, not one. So when God told them their descendants would be as numberless as the stars they cracked up.

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” God asked. “I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”

And sure enough, the following year Sarah cuddled a baby in her lap.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Mary was a typical teenager—ponytail, braces on her teeth—when angel Gabriel showed up at her door and told her she was going to have a baby.

“Get outta here. I’m a virgin. Unmarried.”

This is God’s doing Gabriel said—your baby will be “the Son of God.”

And by the way, your cousin Elizabeth “is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

God’s good at impossible. Look at those three babies …

Isaac, Sarah’s Baby

When Isaac grew up he and his wife Rebekah had a son. They named him Jacob. God changed his name to Israel.

And there you go. Your Old Testament is wrapped in a package labeled Israel.

John, Elizabeth’s Baby

Angel Gabriel told Zechariah, “Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son! And you are to name him John … he will be great in the eyes of the Lord … He will precede the coming of the Lord, preparing the people for his arrival.”

And there you go. John set the stage for Jesus’ ministry and pointed his first disciples to him. “Among those born of women there is no one greater than John,” Jesus said.

Jesus, Mary’s Baby

“He will be great,” said Gabriel. “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David … his kingdom will never end.” And he whispered in Joseph’s ear, “You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

And there you go. From that day ’til this, wherever his message has gone, lives have changed. People have become compassionate and generous—built churches, hospitals, schools, orphanages; emptied their pockets and given their lives for others.

Even so, his earthly life had a brutal ending. Whips. Nails. Thorns. Spit. Scorn. The Cross. He wanted out—“offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death” (Heb. 5:7).

In the garden he fell face down on the ground and prayed to be delivered from the ghastly ordeal. “Abba, Father … everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.”

“Yet,” he added … “Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Nothing is impossible with God—but not everything that is possible passes the test of his will. If he had stepped in and snatched the cup of death from the lips of his Son, the plan he put in place for our salvation would have been aborted.

Let your pains be made plain, your frustrations be made clear, your wishes be made known.

Level with him. Tell him where you hurt and what you want …

But don’t forget the P.S.

P.S. Yet not what I will, but what you will.

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