Impossible Situations

Good stuff from Steve Brown - "What To Do In An Impossible Situation:"

Jesus just couldn’t get away from all the people who needed him. Jesus went away to a lonely place to rest and to pray in Mark 6, only to have a hungry crowd of five thousand meet him…with no fast food in sight. That is what I’d call an impossible situation.
It may look to you like everybody else has it all together except for you. Others look at you and think the very same thing. The fact is we’re all in this, facing an impossible situation. If you’re like the rest of us, you may find yourself facing pain, hurt, loneliness, worry, frustration and failure.

Recognize that there are some impossible situations you just can’t do anything about. The slogan, “the difficult we do immediately while the impossible takes a little longer,” sounds good…but it just isn’t true. For every problem, there isn’t always a solution.

Jesus and his disciples found themselves in an impossible situation with only five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people. (It is one thing to add water to the soup to feed some extra people, but this is in another category altogether.) What Jesus did here is exactly the same thing he does in your impossible situation.

Compassion

Jesus met the impossible situation with compassion (“he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd,” Mark 6:34).

“Is there really a God?” is an irrelevant question. The important question is, “What kind of God?” If God cares and loves, then you can deal with impossibilities. Christ revealed a God of compassion: a God who knows when a sparrow dies and when you lose a single hair (he’s been thinking about me a lot). God cares about the lilies of the field and he’s especially concerned about his own, believers in the body of Christ. 

Jesus preached with his actions. Jesus came into the world, allowing us to see a God who really cares, a God who really reaches out. With God, you can deal with death, pain and impossibilities…as long as you know he cares for you.

Instruction

Jesus met the impossible situation with instruction (“and he began to teach them many things,” Mark 6:34).

In Psalm 119:9-16, the Psalmist wrote, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!...I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.”

Where does the Word become real in your life? It becomes real in your impossible situations. God doesn’t just leave you in the darkness, he teaches you in your impossible situation. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). In other words, “you’re going to learn them as you go through the bad times.” In the midst of an impossible situation ask, “God, what are you trying to teach me?” Pray that God’s Word becomes real in your impossible situation.

Every facet of your life—good and bad, every hurt you suffer and every impossible situation you face—is bathed in the teaching of God’s Word. That teaching gives understanding. And that understanding makes the impossible situation bearable.

Sufficiency

Jesus met the impossible situation with sufficiency. Only five loaves and two fish, but in the hand of Christ, it was sufficient.

2 Corinthians 3:5 teaches, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.”

Are you a great sinner? His grace is sufficient for you. Are you unwanted? His love is sufficient for you. Are you afraid? His courage is sufficient for you. Are you dying? His promise is sufficient for you.

Jesus met an impossible situation with sufficiency. Whatever your impossible situation, he will be sufficient. He may not change it or erase it, but he will be sufficient in it.

Abundance

Jesus met the impossible situation with abundance.

The Father’s abundance is taught throughout Scripture: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38). “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21). “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

The Father meets your impossible situation with abundance. At that point, there is a joy welling up that isn’t even related to circumstances. It is the abundance that God gives.

In your impossible situation, remember that the Father is with you. And that makes all the difference in the world.