God of Wonders
Editor’s Note: Journey is pleased to announce our new resource, “Pensées: A 40-Day Devotional for Pastors,” will be released this month, January 2022.
Every day at Journey we post a devotion for our member-ministers, an inspiring “pensée” to begin their day. Written by a pastor-of-pastors, it’s an encouraging or even challenging thought on which shepherds can meditate as they go about their lives and ministries
This month’s Journey blog post, like our January 1 post, is a randomly selected entry from “Pensées: A 40-Day Devotional for Pastors.” We hope it will inspire and encourage you. We also hope you will purchase a copy for yourself or your pastor. Your purchase will help Journey continue our ministry of helping young ministers build strong for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry. Click here to be directed to the Journey Store.
GOD OF WONDERS
“When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19.25-26
PENSÉE: POWER
It was on this day, over three decades ago, that our first daughter was born. Miracle of miracles!
I remember driving my wife down State Boulevard in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the pre-dawn hours for the induced delivery. Our little girl would enter the world weighing more than ten pounds, the extra emphasis of God on a birth that should never have happened.
You see, doctors had told us we would never be able to have children. Impossible. Not going to happen. Their counsel was to know the joy of parenthood by adopting. After prayer, we made the decision to follow the doctors’ counsel. We called our denominational adoption agency to ask about the process and request literature. That evening, we called our parents to tell them what the doctors had told us and what we had decided to do. They shared our sorrow but were glad to hear of our decision to pursue adoption. Both sets of parents assured us they were ready to do whatever they could to help. After each conversation, we hung up the phone, thankful for our parents and encouraged by their support, but feeling as if we had just attended a funeral, the funeral of our own child, a child we had never met.
About forty days later, we had to call our parents again and tell them we had been wrong: we were expecting our first child. The reality that excellent doctors had previously told us we would have to accept, God had superseded with a higher reality we accepted with delight beyond all description. Seven years of waiting, hoping, and praying. Two months of sorrow, tears, and pain. It was all baptized in joy and gratitude to God for His blessing.
All of this was in our hearts and minds as we drove to the hospital that October 27th morning. To the hum of the car engine, we remembered and rehearsed the history of the miracle God had already performed and were about to see delivered. It was a miracle God was to repeat three years later with the birth of our second beautiful daughter.
As Jesus said, a situation may be impossible for people, but all things are possible with God. He is the Creator God, the God who can speak to nothing and from it create a universe of galaxies, stars, planets, lands, plants, and animals. Even little ones who will one day call out to Him in love and trust, “Heavenly Father.”
Pastor, this is your all-things-are-possible day and life. Dare to bring your impossibilities to God, believing He is still in the business of making them come true.
“We have a God who delights in impossibilities.” Billy Sunday
Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.
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