I Believe

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

— Matthew 19:26

Is there a hopeful, forward-thinking statement you can make with full belief it will be true and no doubt whatsoever that it won’t? If you need a minute, go ahead and take one. Give it some thought.

Every believer in Christ can hold to certain eternal promises. At the same time, we’d be wrong to assume any of us has certainty in any type of earthly optimism. This world is rough. If we expect only good outcomes, we will be disappointed—daily. Hopeful outcomes seem impossible more often than they seem possible.

That’s what Jesus’s disciples were thinking right before He spoke these words. There was a guy in the room who checked all the boxes. He had money. He had influence. He was a good guy who did good things. He even had enough humility to ask Jesus an earnest question about eternal life—because that was the thing he couldn’t speak to with full assurance. Whether or not he had eternal life sat in his soul with a measure of doubt.

And when that man walked away from Jesus’s offer, his disciples could not believe it. If that guy didn’t have the hope of eternal life, who in the world did? In that moment, Jesus locked eyes with them and said that some things are impossible for people, but with God, all things are possible.

That truth isn’t a call to blind optimism. It is a call to believe. None of us will arrive in heaven one day to hear Jesus say, “You believed I could do too much.” But some of us will learn that we didn’t believe Him enough. We saw possibilities through faith in Jesus as impossibilities because we doubted Jesus could or would step into the mess. The thing is, He already did. What we can say with full assurance, then, even here on earth, is that God is always faithful. There is nothing He can’t do.

• Listen to Matthew West’s “Breakthrough’s Coming.” What lyrics stand out to you as particularly encouraging? Which stand out to you as challenging?
• What are you not asking God to do because you doubt He can or will?
• Thank God for already proving nothing is impossible for Him by redeeming your life through Christ’s work at the cross. Ask Him to help you believe Him now for lesser things, with absolutely no doubt that He can provide for every need.