“For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).
The angel Gabriel said those words to Mary, a young woman who had just been told she would conceive a child as a virgin. Her elderly cousin Elizabeth, barren her entire life, was already six months pregnant. Neither woman engineered any of it. Both impossibilities were pieces of a plan God had set in motion long before either of them knew anything was happening.
That’s worth pausing on. When we hear “nothing is impossible,” we tend to hear a blank check — God will do anything I ask. But Gabriel wasn’t handing Mary a blank check. He was announcing a purpose. God wasn’t reacting to a problem; He was unfolding what He had planned from the beginning. God has your life planned out, and your every step still counts (Psalm 139:16; Proverbs 16:9). He is sovereign. And He has never once had to improvise. You are responsible, but this does not threaten your security.
The Real Impossibility
The virgin birth isn’t the greatest impossibility in Scripture. Jesus used the same language about something closer to home. After the rich young ruler walked away sorrowful, the disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus answered: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
Consider what that means. A spiritually dead heart cannot revive itself. It cannot choose God, love God, or even want to want God. That is our condition by birth: life without God’s indwelling Spirit is doomed to failure, because the Spirit supplies the motivation for every good thing — faith, repentance, love, obedience. The impossible thing God does is not mainly changing our circumstances. It is putting His Spirit in us and making dead people alive (Romans 4:17). If you are in Christ, the greatest impossibility has already happened to you. The spiritual life is cooperating with what God has done, is doing, and will do, not mustering up your will to perform works to make up for sin.
The Bedrock of the Gospel
So what happens when life seems hopeless — when only a miracle will do? When you’re guilty, wrong, suffering. When you’re at your worst. When you’ve reached bottom. You’ve reached the bedrock of the gospel. You need not sink any further.
And here’s what I want you to hear: you can return to the event of Jesus’s sacrifice and receive cleansing and forgiveness (1 John 1:9) — not because returning re-earns your standing, but because your standing never rested on you in the first place. A loving Father does not unbirth His children. Christ has already paid for your sins, and His finished work doesn’t expire. Every day can be new, not because you keep starting over, but because God can discipline you without ever casting you out.
Don’t Give Up
You need to understand your past, so you can learn from it and find healing. But you need not let your past hold you back from God’s best for you today — because your past doesn’t get a vote on your future. God’s purpose does.
If you give up, you might miss what God is doing. Wait expectantly. Your waiting is not in vain — not because you’re hoping God will finally notice you, but because the One who planned your life before you were born is still carrying out His plan. All that God promises will be fulfilled.
Name Your Impossibility
What is the “impossible” in your life right now? Name it honestly. Then ask which kind it is. Is it a circumstance you’re asking God to change? He may or may not change it, but either way His purpose stands. Or is it a heart — yours, or someone you love — that only God can change? Then take courage: hearts are His specialty. The God who made a virgin conceive and who raises the spiritually dead to life is not intimidated by your impossibility. He acts for those who wait for Him (Isaiah 64:4).
Without Faith it is Impossible to Please God
Image created by Matt using Muse AI.
