Have you ever come to the conclusion that there was something in your life that you very much wanted but that it seemed impossible to happen?  You thought about it, you dreamed about it yet you accepted the fact that it will never happen.  The dictionary defines the word ‘impossible’ as ‘incapable of being or incapable of occurring.”  I’m sure that many of you feel that way or have felt that way in the past.  You have asked God for the impossible because there is no way you could bring it to pass on your own.  And, it doesn’t have to be something materialistic; it could be your not being able to forgive a certain person for something they did in the past to you.  Or, it could be you need a healing miracle for yourself or a loved one.  But the good news is that because of Jesus Christ we always have hope; Why? Because with God ‘all things are possible.’ That dream, that forgiveness, that healing, they are all possible.  How do we move from impossible to possible?  The answer is not difficult at all – the answer is PRAYER!  Prayer is the key that opens the spiritual doors to the ‘all things are possible’ mansion in the kingdom of God.

When life overwhelms us, the best thing we can do is keep our eyes upon Jesus.  Jesus wants to encourage us; He wants to lift us up and He wants to give us strength when we need it.  You will be encouraged; your burdens seem lighter and you find strength after you have spent time in prayer.  This is what being in the presence of the Lord will do for you.  You won’t get encouraged, or uplifted or strengthen by being with people in the world.  You don’t go to a pizza restaurant to get barbeque; you must go where you will find what you are looking for, and when you are looking for the impossible, going to God is your only resource.  Don’t be afraid to pray or wish that you could pray like someone else. Just pray simply and honestly.  And, the best way to pray is to pray from the heart. Whether you’re kneeling, walking, or lying down.  God isn’t interested as much in your posture, whether you are standing, sitting or on your knees, as much as He  is in the position of your heart.  You don’t want Him to find that your heart is closed; a closed heart means that there are things hidden that you do not want to deal with.  A closed door may hide anger, bitterness, unforgiveness.  But a submitted heart leaves the door wide open for God to work through you.

If our heart is open then we will want to spend time with God; either enjoying his presence, in worship, reading His Word or talking with Him.  I love what Paul says in Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”  Do you think that way?  Do you realize that no matter what you have prayed about – no matter how impossible it appears to be – God is able to do more than that?  With God you always get more!  God is not confined in any way. We might limit Him in our thinking and put Him in a box, but God is bigger than our box; God has no boundaries or parameters or limitations.  With people you might get less than you expect, but with God, He will exceed your expectations.  Remember that prayer makes all things possible.

The one thing that we, as Christians, can never lose besides our faith and trust in God, is our hope in the Lord during trying times. If you lose hope in what God can do to change your circumstances, you will not find another answer.  Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope is the anticipation and expectation that God will turn everything around and bring you out of the storm.  Hope is a powerful thing if you are ever forced to walk through a severe storm in your life.  For some, it will be the difference as to whether or not they make it all the way through the storm or not.

When your circumstances are tempting you to lose your hope in God, you must remember that God is able to bring goodness out of difficulty; God is able to bring life out of death and God is able to bring joy out of pain.  No one’s journey on this earth will be easy, but it is a journey that requires you to have hope in God.  God made you and He has saved you. No one else can take His place.  Believers have something non-believers don’t have. We have Almighty God who has the power to deliver us from any circumstances that come our way.  Trouble can come in an instant and that is why our hope and trust in God must remain active at all times.  Hope tells your mind that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Faith, mixed with trust, joined with hope, is a three-fold cord that will keep you intact during your struggles so that you make it to the finish line.  But if you lose your hope anywhere along the line, and your faith and trust levels decrease, you are putting handcuffs on your deliverance. God can only work with you if you are still out there on the playing field trying to win.  He will not work with you if you are sitting on the bench wallowing in your own self-pity!  You can only win in this life is you stay on the playing field and you keep pressing on.

Our hope, as Christians, is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ. If you are going through a struggle of any kind right now and it looks like your dream is not going to happen, visualize Jesus standing at the end of a tunnel holding your dream in the palm of His hand. Keep that vision in the front of your mind and see it when you start to doubt or want to give up.  Your faith is vitally important. It is the difference between life and death.  It is the difference between seeing your dream come to pass, or letting it pass you by.  No matter how tough your circumstances are right now, nothing will happen if you have lost hope, but everything can happen if you keep hope alive.

Have you ever sat down and considered just how good God has been to you?  If you have, I’m sure you are just over-whelmed at the mercy and goodness of God.  God’s blessings and benefits to us should leave us speechless and on our faces in total gratitude.  Our hearts should be full of joy and our eyes full of tears when we recognize the depth of God’s love for us.  Think about the prayers you have prayed from the bottom of your heart knowing that God, and only God, could help you.  And then one day you find out that God not only heard you, but He answered you by doing exceedingly above what you asked for.

How do you thank God for forgiving you of all your sins?  How do you thank God for healing all of your diseases?  How do you thank God for reaching down into the pit and placing you in a palace? How do you thank God for taking what Satan meant to harm you and turning it around for your good?  The short answer is – you can’t!  You will never be able to pay back God for all His gifts to you because you can’t out-give God!  God is the greatest Giver of all! Everything we have is a gift from God, but we should live in a state of gratefulness and be determined to render to God all that we are capable of.

Most people never consider God’s blessings to them.  They don’t realize that God is still giving to them day after day.  Until we are sick, we forget to thank God for our ability to get out of bed every day and get ourselves dressed.  But these are all gifts from God and we need to let Him know how grateful we are to have them. Psalm 116:12 says “what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?’  Now, there are many ways to show God how much we love Him; in other words there are many ways to give back to God. You can give God some of your time. It doesn’t take much to spend 5, 10 minutes alone with God.  Talk to Him; tell Him how much you love Him; tell him how grateful you are for all He has done for you and your family.  Give back to God by being a good example of a wife, mother, husband, father, friend and by being a good boss or employee.  2 Corinthians 5: 20 says that we ‘are ambassadors for Christ.”  You are an ambassador at home, in the workplace and every where you go.  You give to God when you forgive a wrong that has been done to you.  You also give to God by the way you treat people. Treat others the same way you want to be treated.

Remember, your giving, no matter what form it is in, is a reflection of your love for God and your gratitude for His grace and gifts to you.  God is good and He desires that all of His children give out of love and reverence for Him so that the world will know that He is love and loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son so that we might have life and life more abundantly.

One of life’s greatest blessings is to have a godly mother.  Mothers carried us inside their wombs for nine months, and endured the painful birthing process. That alone deserves a medal of honor.  Nobody can argue that mothers give significantly more of themselves to raising their children on a daily basis than they get credit for.  Yet, mothers rarely receive the honor they truly deserve. So everyone, take advantage of this opportunity you have to say thank you to the one person  in your life who is responsible for raising you, loving you, protecting you and who made sacrifice after sacrifice for you.

Mothers, when your children were babies, you probably dedicated them to God and as you watch them grow up, remember that God has a plan and a purpose for them.  Let your children see your faith in action.  Children learn much by observation and they are always watching, probably more than you know.   Do all you can to influence your children to live a godly life; pray for them; have compassion, and stand firm on your faith.  Countless mothers have learned to let go and let God do a work in their children that only He can do and they have learned that God is faithful.

For those of us who no longer have our mothers  here with us, pay honor to them by carrying out the desire of their hearts and that is to serve Jesus Christ all the days of our lives.  If you have a godly legacy, keep the torch burning by passing on the faith that has sustained so many before you.  Spiritual legacies are eternal and invaluable.  Heaven and earth will one day pass away but if you are walking in the salvation and faith of your godly mother, seeing you in Heaven will be her reward.

Mothers, we thank you and honor you and pray God’s blessing upon you!

All of us will go through a period of feeling so overwhelmed that we think we can’t take it.  We become overwhelmed by life itself, by people, by our circumstances; by the demands placed on us and it isn’t always easy.  It’s important that we understand that God knows our abilities.  He knows what we are capable of.  He knows what we can and cannot handle.  One of the many attributes of God is that He is an architect.  God has designed you just like an architect designs a building.  Understand that even though an architect never drives a bulldozer, or picks up a hammer or nail, he builds the building with specs to determine what grade of concrete, and steel and wood he must put in the building.  He designs it in a way to determine how much weight the building can stand.  You have been designed by God. He designed your strengths, your will, your personality and your tenacity and He already knows how well you will stand up under pressure.  He knows exactly what you have been designed to do in your lifetime and He knows that when the time comes, you will be able to handle the challenges you face.

The Bible says that God is faithful, and he will not allow us to be tempted beyond our abilities and that He will provide us a way of escape so that we may endure.  So when God says you are able to endure it, it is more than a word of encouragement.  It’s a word from the architect who constructed you, and He knows what you are design to do and what you were not meant to do.  That’s why you’re not going through what someone else you know is going through. They have the grace for it – you don’t! Your test and your temptation is determined by your construction and God’s purpose for you.  You can’t take what has been designed for someone else and they can’t take what has been designed for you! God’s grace is given to you exactly when you need it and you will find that it is more than sufficient.

God’s favor follows His grace and that is the key to over-coming every challenge that will come your way.  You only get to see what you are made of when your must endure the burdens that are put on your shoulders alone to carry.  You have a job to do and only you can do it.  You have a purpose to fulfill and only you can fulfill it.  You will win every time not only because of who you are but who you belong to.  Look for the grace of God in your life and you will also find His favor.