On January 26, 1945, Audie Murphy and approximately 40 U.S. troops sat shivering in a frigid, snow-covered field near Holtzwihr, France. Those battle-weary soldiers had been ordered to hold a vital roadway until reinforcements arrived, but the promised relief was slow in coming. When 250 German troops and 6 tanks emerged from the woods, panic would well up in young Murphy’s heart. Leading men much older than himself, Murphy instructed his men to withdraw, as he radioed in requesting an artillery strike. He would then commence a one-man onslaught, holding off the enemy for an hour, facing impossible odds. After being injured, he would rally his men and lead a counterattack against the withdrawing enemy. This brave young man would eventually become the most decorated U.S. soldier in World War II.
One would have to agree that our young soldier faced a difficult situation. We all face challenges in our lives, but there are those moments when we pass the threshold from challenging to impossible, perhaps a relationship that needs mending, a financial situation that is out of control, a job that is slipping through our fingers, or a heart riddled with conflict that is in desperate need of restored joy and peace. That’s the perfect time to lean upon the God of the impossible.
When the prophet Elisha told King Joram, King Jehoshaphat, and their thirsty troops that God would fill “a valley full of ditches…that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts,” those weary men would need this reassurance: “And this is but a light thing in the sight of the LORD.” And to add to the miraculous event, “he (God) will deliver the Moabites also into your hand.” Water AND an impossible victory would be theirs!
God loves impossible situations. Abraham, the friend of God, would father his beloved Isaac at the ripe old age of 100, for “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” God would promise deliverance for his disobedient, exiled people, causing Jeremiah to victoriously proclaim, “There is nothing too hard for thee,” and a young virgin girl would birth the Savior of the world, for “With God nothing shall be impossible.”
Are you facing a challenge WAY too big for human solutions? Is there a situation in your life so dire that only a miracle could help? We serve a God of the impossible…give it to Him and watch Him work!
Jeremiah 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.
Praise God, I serve the Master of the impossible!