Can You Do the Impossible?
Faith. It’s a small word with an enormous job. It makes the impossible possible. The Bible defines it this way: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV).
Hebrews 11 is the roll call of faith — a chapter filled with imperfect men and women who committed themselves to following God through the most unexpected events of their lives. Not one of them was superhuman. Every one of them was scared. And still, they believed.
I think about faith every time I hear the hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. It was the commitment song the night I was ordained to be a pastor. I’ll never forget standing there as the second verse filled the room: “Though none go with me, I still will follow.”
I didn’t know the story behind that song then. I do now. And it wrecks me every time.
In the 1800s, missionaries were spreading the gospel across India. Northern India was especially dangerous — home to tribes so violent they were known as headhunters. Many Indian missionaries lost their lives there.
A Welsh missionary led one Indian husband and wife to the Lord. The couple had two young sons. When the village chief learned of their conversion, he decided to make an example of them. He lined up archers and demanded the family renounce Jesus Christ.
The father spoke first: “I have decided to follow Jesus, and there is no turning back.”
The archers killed his two boys.
They turned to the wife. Renounce your faith, or die. She and her husband replied: “Though no one joins me, still I will follow.”
They killed her.
Now the archers took aim at the father. Alone. His children gone. His wife gone. And with everything stripped away, he said: “The cross before me, the world behind me.”
They killed him, too.
And the village chief? He was so shaken by the family’s faith that he became a follower of Jesus.
That’s what faith does. It doesn’t remove the impossible. It walks straight through it. Not because we are strong enough, but because we believe the One who walks with us is.
So what about you, friend? What impossible thing has life set in front of you today? Don’t worry. You don’t have to move it. God can.
Keep looking up.
Heaven is closer than you think.
May God bless your day.
Related devotionals: James 2:14 real faith · Prayer of Jabez · Eisenhower’s D-Day faith
Want more from Pastor Rodney?
If today’s devotional spoke to your heart, my books carry these same themes deeper. Stories of God moving in ordinary lives, scripture for tired pastors and weary parents, and steady reminders that heaven is closer than you think.