“For the word of God will never fail.”
Luke 1:37 NLT

(Also translated in manuscripts as “Nothing is impossible with God.”)

Failure is part of everyone’s journey. Facing things that seem impossible, requires experimentation, which results in many setbacks in pursuit of something that is out of reach. Ideals collide with reality. Goals smash into obstacles.

We can’t even imagine experiencing the impossible without many failures along the way.

There is one for whom this simply is not true. God is able to accomplish the impossible without failure.

This truth is spoken to and experienced by a young woman who is about to have her life filled with the son of God. Yes, this is the message of the angel Gabriel from God to Mary, regarding becoming the birth mother of Jesus, even as a virgin.

Jesus, as an adult, has a discussion with a religious leader about another impossibility. It is another miraculous birth into a new life in Christ. Jesus sums it up with the invitational statement that “one must be born again.” Not something you and I can accomplish. Only God can do this.

Reflection:

I have come to realize that life is impossible and filled with failure apart from God. Any honest reflection of one’s own journey leads to this conclusion every time.

Mary’s “impossible” experience becoming the mother of Jesus becomes an ongoing example of Jesus doing the “impossible” for all of us, by inviting God to live and grow within us as we experience this “new birth” a “different kind of new beginning” that can only be accomplished by God, through Jesus Christ.

Encouragement:

There is only one who can do the impossible without failure. It is not you! Thankfully, it is God. Let Him take over your life completely.

Prayer:

Dear God,

Thank You for making it so clear that You do the impossible without failure. Your word never fails. I know the failure of my words over and over. Your words are an invitation into the impossible that will never fail – being born again into a life where you transform and redeem what I cannot overcome, fix, or save. Thank You.

In Jesus’s name, I pray, Amen.

-Ed McDowell, CEO
Warm Beach Camp Ministries