To Encourage You

Mark 9:23 “All things are possible for one who believes.”

God has so much He desires to do for us, to give us, to show us, and to pour out into our lives.  They are vast things, immeasurable things, awesome things, but there is a key to receiving them. That key is belief.

In the verse above, Jesus is talking to a father who had a son who was demon possessed.  The man pleads with Jesus to help him with these words: “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  To this Jesus replies: “’If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”  With these words, Jesus was declaring that it’s never a question of whether He can do the things we would ask of Him, for all things are possible for Him. He can still the wind and waves with a word. He can heal any disease. He can restore life to the dead.  However, the condition He has placed on so much of what He does is our own belief. 

But what things is Jesus referring to when He says, “all things?”  To understand this, it’s worth noting that in one of Jesus’ own prayers to the Father, He said this: “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).  Notice how Jesus’ request is couched in terms of the Father’s will. Here He was praying in Gethsemane about His crucifixion.  He acknowledged that God could do anything, but His prayer was that all things that were the Father’s will would be done. 

So, what things do we know beyond a shadow of a doubt are the Father’s will and if we will but believe, we are sure to have them?  Well, for one, if we will but believe, we can be forgiven of all our sins, every single one, for “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  And with that forgiveness, the immeasurable blessing of eternal life is given to us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). 

Another thing God would have us know is that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  These things are all those things that accompany salvation, things like new desires, a new love, a new destiny, a new hope, new understanding of the Word of God, new wisdom, a new motivation and new power to obey God’s commands, and every other wonderful gift that comes to those who receive “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) the moment they have put their faith in Christ. 

You see, the moment we believe, the floodgates of all that God would have for us are opened to us.  And it is these wonderful things that God would have believers to think about all the time as we are urged by the apostle Paul in these words from Philippians 4:8-9: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” God would have us to know that it is these wonderful things – all the things that are the most wonderful things that exist, that are the possession of those who would believe in Him.  Furthermore, God would have us to know that the things He has for us, the things He wants to do in and through us, are beyond anything we can even comprehend. Listen as Paul lifts his heart in praise with the following words: “to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21). 

May God open our eyes to these truths, including the eyes of any who are suffering, hopeless, and overwhelmed by the circumstances of life currently or regrets about things in the past. All things are possible to him who believes, for the one on Whom we believe can most assuredly do all things.