[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Friday, October 4, 2013

[Paul]

Well, here in North America and Europe it's Friday, either in the afternoon or evening as this is being written, in either Europe or North America, whereas you in Australia and New Zealand are in your Saturday.  I hope that, when you get the chance to read this, that your day is going well, about to end or about to begin.

We return to an author we've met before, Roy A. Borges, an inmate serving time in a prison in Florida.  Today his contribution is entitled "The Impossible Realm," rendered as follows:

The word _impossible can rob me of all hope.  If I believe something is impossible, my belief will help create the fact because I will not try to make it happen.  Words build the road that takes me in the direction I speak.  What I say today is what I get tomorrow.  My talk precedes my walk.  If I think it is impossible, often that will be the outcome.

The Department of Corrections has set my release date from prison for 2046.  For a person sitting in a prison cell with a long sentence, life can seem worthless.  What can be done when life appears impossible? When release from prison seems unreachable?

My thoughts, hopes and ambitions are all crystallized within the context of the possible.  When it is not possible, it is out of reach.  Logic assumes that life cannot be lived outside the realm of the possible.  What happens when my way is beset with insurmountable difficulty? Does it spell defeat? Is all hope eradicated?

But put faith in Christ into the equation and enter the possible realm.  In God's realm all things are possible:  the big crowd feeds on the little boy's lunch, tax money is found in the mouth of a fish, water turns into wine at the wedding, the blind see, the crippled walk, and the dead rise from the grave.  Impossible is not a word in God's vocabulary.

Many thought the possibility of changing my ways was impossible, and they had good reasons to believe it.  This was my third trip to prison.  That alignment put me on a track that spelled defeat.  "Lock 'em up and throw away the key." Society and everyone had given up on me.  But God never gives up on anyone.  He is always there waiting to intervene.

When I was alone in a prison cell, God found me.  "For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10; the impossible became possible with God.

God changed me.  I began writing articles and stories about the things God was teaching me.  I began doing some unique and amazing things to honor and glorify God.  But it was not what God did through me that was so unbelievable, but rather what God was doing inside me.  He is teaching me how to love others, to forgive those who hurt me, and to do the right thing--not just when I'm being watched, but when I'm alone.  I am being remade.  "So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation:  everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Cor. 5:17).  The insurmountable difficulties turn into opportunities to show the world what God can do with a heart that is completely surrendered to God.  Battle scars become victory marks, and the tears from struggles become blessings in disguise.  God's love for me becomes the impetus that drives my faith, for God first loved me.  "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

I can only embrace the impossible realm victoriously because with God nothing is impossible.  He assures me that with God, all things are possible and that God will work everything out for my good.  (Rom. 8:28).

And there you have Roy's article for today which, although short, hopefully ministered to you.  Keep in mind that, although God will work things out, that He will do it or them in His own way, will and time, not ours.  Sometimes that is hard to swallow, but it is so true.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul