Can God Really Do Impossible Things? | Luke 18:27 with Natalie & Vera

Do you believe God can do impossible things?

In this episode of the Dwell Differently podcast, Natalie Abbott and Vera talk about Luke 18:27 and the God who can do what we cannot.

This Month's Memory Verse:
"Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with man is possible with God.''
📖 Luke 18:27

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Discover the easy button for Scripture memory through Dwell Differently's resources.

Resources from Today's Episode:
Use code TREASURE to get 30% off your copy of "Storing Up Treasures" at thegoodbook.com today.

Transcript

0:00:00 - (Natalie Abbott): Foreign. Welcome back to the Dwell Differently podcast. I'm Natalie Abbott, and I got my sister Vera with me today. Welcome, Vera.

0:00:12 - (Vera Schmitz): Hello, it's me. I'm not gonna ruin the intro, so we have to record it extra times today. I'm just gonna be. I'm gonna behave.

0:00:20 - (Natalie Abbott): Look at you. I'm so impressed.

0:00:22 - (Vera Schmitz): I'm maturing.

0:00:23 - (Natalie Abbott): You are. Look at her growing up in the Lord. You know, I think it's probably all the good discipleship that I give you, truly. Okay, let's. Let's. Let's talk about our verse today. I actually. I love this verse because, I mean, it's just. It's just an affirmation of God's power and who he is and what he's able to do, but it's. Is Jesus speaking, and it's from Luke 18:27. It says, Jesus replied, what is impossible with man is possible with God.

0:00:59 - (Natalie Abbott): And that is specific to the context that he's speaking it to, but it's also, like, absolutely true all the time in any context. Like, the things that are impossible for us are possible for God. And I love that this is such a, like, profound yet very simple truth that we can grab onto and memorize and talk about.

0:01:24 - (Vera Schmitz): Do you find yourself, like, in the immediate hearing that, like, quick to believe that or not quick to believe that?

0:01:32 - (Natalie Abbott): I think in my head it's like, oh, yeah, I totally agree with that. But if I think back, even, like in the past week or a couple weeks. No, like, in my actions, in my. In my desperate moments, like, am I believing that God can do impossible things? Am I believing that he can even do things that seem pretty reasonable? You know what I mean? Like, am I, like, if I'm struggling to believe that what is impossible with what is even possible with me, what is reasonable for a human to do?

0:02:08 - (Natalie Abbott): You know, if I'm having difficulty believing that God can even do those things? Like, yeah, that's Deep Confessions with Natalie Abbott. What about you, Vera?

0:02:19 - (Vera Schmitz): I think it's seasonal for me. There are some seasons where I'm like, I'm all in, man. And I'm like, anything can happen. Is that in it? Like a. Like a Lego song?

0:02:32 - (Natalie Abbott): Everything is awesome.

0:02:34 - (Vera Schmitz): Everything is awesome. I did it. Yeah.

0:02:37 - (Natalie Abbott): Anything is possible.

0:02:39 - (Vera Schmitz): I don't know.

0:02:40 - (Natalie Abbott): It's.

0:02:40 - (Vera Schmitz): That was terrible.

0:02:43 - (Natalie Abbott): So sometimes I'm.

0:02:44 - (Vera Schmitz): I'm all in. And I'm like. And I think I've mentioned this before in the podcast. I think when I absolutely have to have a miracle, I'm. I'm like, I know God is going to deliver this answer for me. I know, because I can't. I literally can't without it. And then other times, it is harder for me to believe. And sometimes, even when I read my Bible, I'm like, that's pretty wild, right? Like, even at Easter, sometimes I'm like, and then he raised from the dead.

0:03:14 - (Vera Schmitz): Like, we believe some gnarly stuff and I'm all for it, but, like, when you really stop and think about all of what God has done, it's pretty wild.

0:03:28 - (Natalie Abbott): And.

0:03:28 - (Vera Schmitz): And when I get to that point where I'm like, he raised Jesus from the dead. He also raised, like, Jesus raised people from the dead. That's crazy. But, like, what's equally as crazy is the fact that we are humans having this conversation and there's a billion synapses that are firing at one time to make this all happen. And that, you know, there. The miracle of thought. Yeah. And cohesion of thought, like, is, in my mind, it's.

0:03:57 - (Vera Schmitz): It's equally. Not maybe equally, but it's up there with raising people from the dead. Life itself.

0:04:04 - (Natalie Abbott): Right. So anyway, those are both equally impossible.

0:04:07 - (Vera Schmitz): Yeah, yeah, they're pretty. Every. Everything is impossible, like, without God. And so sometimes I really am all in. And other times there's that, like, tiny little skeptic like, oh, that's. That's intense. I'm a person who believes people can be raised from the dead. That's intense.

0:04:26 - (Natalie Abbott): Yeah. It kind of reminds me back to our verse from maybe about praying out of God's massive, glorious riches that he would strengthen you with power in your inner being through his spirit. It's like this idea of, like, the. The cosmic infinite power of God somehow being contained in this itty bitty space of me. Do you know, like, was that an

0:04:50 - (Vera Schmitz): Aladdin reference right there?

0:04:52 - (Natalie Abbott): Itty bitty living space.

0:04:53 - (Vera Schmitz): Living space.

0:04:55 - (Natalie Abbott): Massive cosmic power. Living space. Okay. If you haven't seen the cartoon Aladdin, maybe go watch it. If you have kids. They will love it. But no, it's. It is this idea, though, that there's so many things that are like, man, that's impossible. Man, that's crazy. And even. Even as I was thinking about this, this verse, so the context of this verse is this. Is this is when the rich young ruler comes to Jesus. If you're familiar with these.

0:05:21 - (Natalie Abbott): This. This story. If not, you should go back and read it in Luke 18. But it's a story of this rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and the disciples. And he's. He's like, what do I have to do to Inherit, you know, eternal life. And Jesus, like, followed the rules and he's like, well, I have. And he's like, oh, okay, well then give all that you have to the poor and come follow me. And the guy goes away sad. And Jesus says, you know, that it's, it's like, tip. For a rich man to get into heaven is like a camel going through the eye of a needle. And everybody's like, mind blown and that because they think, you know, rich people are experienced the blessing of God and of course they're going.

0:05:58 - (Vera Schmitz): If.

0:05:58 - (Natalie Abbott): No, if they're not going to heaven, who's going to heaven? Is basically what they ask back. And Jesus replies, what is impossible with man is possible with God. In other words, bringing that camel through the eye of the needle is possible. It is all of it. All things are possible, but specifically salvation. And that's my question for you, Vera, is like, when you think about the impossible things of God, even like scripture or in your life, like, are the things that are most amazing to you, like if you had to put them all on a scale, like parting the Red Sea or you know, personal things that you've been like, I can't believe God did that in my life. Whoa.

0:06:42 - (Natalie Abbott): Like those kinds of things. If you put all of those, like tangible things, physical things or whatever in on one side of the scale and then you put the, the work that God has done in people, that you've seen people's hearts change, that you've seen your own heart change, that you've experienced salvation of God. Which one would you say is more astounding to you?

0:07:07 - (Vera Schmitz): Definitely the second, like when I hear somebody's testimony that's topsy turvy, where you're just like, holy moly. That's unbelievable. Or like I think about people who I love dearly, who don't know Jesus, who like, hate, hate the idea of being in a follower of Christ. And I imagine, like, it would be impossible for them to. For their hearts to change. It would be impossible. You know, when I think about what God can do there, turning a heart of stone into a heart of flesh, that to me is that he did it for me, that he saved me. It's like I can't imagine my life without him. I would trade every physical blessing and amazing, miraculous thing that I can list off.

0:07:56 - (Vera Schmitz): I would trade it all. You know, it's the salvation of my soul and the promises that I have of eternal life that far outweigh any, any splitting of my Jordan, you know, Jordan river or of the Red Sea. I just. They're nothing compared to the salvation and, and the daily comfort of having Jesus in heart and I can rely on the Holy Spirit. I mean, that is just. That is unbelievable.

0:08:26 - (Natalie Abbott): I think it's funny though, because I. I think at surface level we tend to think about when we're saying, oh, you know, God can do impossible things. It's typically not spiritual. Do you know what I mean? It's typically we're thinking about, you know,

0:08:41 - (Vera Schmitz): would God just provide a job for

0:08:43 - (Natalie Abbott): me or would he just, you know, give me direction and help me see a path through this difficult relationship? Or, you know, would he he my marriage or those. And, and those are all astounding things. But to think about, like, I, I guess healing your marriage, that's probably more of. It. Probably falls more into the category of God changing somebody's heart, you know. But. Yeah, I. I tend to agree with you, Vera, that as I think about, like, all of my prayers, like the things that just floor me are.

0:09:21 - (Natalie Abbott): And the things that, you know, keep me on the floor, on my knees, praying, it's not for things. It's not for, you know, impossible situations. Usually it's for people, you know, it's for God to work in. In my own heart or in the hearts of other people. I just think that's. It's just incredible.

0:09:43 - (Vera Schmitz): You know, it does make me think back to May's verse. It's not May's verse. It's the. The. The following verses where it talks about God being able to do immeasurable, immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine. And I had this conversation with Natalie recently about how sometimes I, you know, when I sometimes pray and I think about how God will give me more than I could ask or imagine, I will sometimes think like, well, I was hoping it would be this, but God could maybe give me this, you know, and maybe it's a resolution of a situation and I', oh, please let it be over in the next week. But, you know, maybe God would do it today, you know, And I said to Natalie, it kind of dawned on me recently that what if the immeasurably more that I could ever ask or imagine is actually the prolonged waiting so that he would make a transformation in my heart and change me for. For good in a way that I could never even ask or imagine.

0:10:41 - (Vera Schmitz): And so I think you're right. It's like, you know, we. We sometimes are focused on the circumstances and. And God is. He's doing that and he's also doing all sorts of work in our. In our inner person.

0:10:54 - (Natalie Abbott): And honestly, I think that's a good. That's a good way of considering, like, the problem of difficult circumstances. Right? Like, we're like, we want God to change us. We want you to do impossibly, incredibly more than we could ask or imagine by doing X, Y, Z, like, answer these things that I'm asking you for God. And yet what if God, instead of making you happy, is working to make you holy? What if his goal isn't the same as your goal?

0:11:26 - (Natalie Abbott): And what if his goal is actually the better thing? And I think, I mean, I do. I think that's a great way of understanding trials that we go through in this life. That, you know, our father, he loves us, and it's not like he doesn't care about our trials, but perhaps we're going through something hard because he wants to work in us. Something that is beautiful, that's on the inside instead of on the outside, you know?

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0:12:48 - (Vera Schmitz): Okay, Vera?

0:12:49 - (Natalie Abbott): So if you think about something that's hard or difficult, like, like your hardcore, this feels impossible prayer. You know, sometimes we have prayers that are like 20 years old, but if you're. If you think about one of your most impossible prayers or unlikely things that you just. I mean, I don't know, sometimes it feels very vulnerable to pray those kinds of prayers. What is. Like, what would you say practically? Like, how do we take a verse like this that says God can do impossible things, the things that we know are impossible for us, that change people's hearts?

0:13:27 - (Natalie Abbott): How do you practically trust in this verse? How do you Practically live out this verse. How do you trust that this is true of God? How do you trust God to be good and capable of doing impossible things?

0:13:41 - (Vera Schmitz): I think something that I've recognized in myself is I might give lip service to saying like, oh, yeah, I believe God can do impossible things. But then I actually. My. I will talk about the situation in a hopeless way. Or maybe I will dress. Dress up the situation in a way where I, like, no longer hope for it, because it somehow is an easier blow to me if, well, I didn't put all my hope in there in that thing, or I didn't put all my hope in the Lord for that thing to come to fruition. So I won't be so disappointed if it doesn't.

0:14:20 - (Natalie Abbott): So I think, like, one vulnerability of. Of actually saying.

0:14:25 - (Vera Schmitz): Of actually believing. Yeah, of actually believing. So it's like, okay, I'm gonna. Without any reserve, believe and trust in the Lord that he can do anything he wants to do. And then I'm gonna speak in a way that doesn't minimize what he can do. You know, I. It makes me think of multiple times in scripture where somebody who's really old is promised a child, and what does the husband do? They laugh when they find out.

0:14:58 - (Natalie Abbott): Or they doubt. Yeah. Yeah.

0:14:59 - (Vera Schmitz): Or they doubt. It's like they laugh, and then God's like, you're not going to speak for

0:15:03 - (Natalie Abbott): the next nine months and be quiet.

0:15:07 - (Vera Schmitz): Yeah. So I think am like, am I laughing at something that, you know, I say that I want this thing, or I say that I'm believing for this thing, but then I laugh about it, you know? Or I. Because. Because that somehow feels like some protective measure, you know? So I think that's one really good way is like, okay, if I say I'm gonna believe God for this thing, how am I speaking about it in my mind to myself? How am I speaking about it out loud? Am I praying for it, or am I just kind of acknowledging it and then shoving it down so I don't get my hopes up?

0:15:40 - (Vera Schmitz): And. And two, just realizing it may never happen. But something Natalie has said to me recently, we were talking about a situation, and she was like, no one is ever discredited in scripture for believing. They are always, like, not punished or looked down on, but, like, scolded by Jesus for not having any belief, you know? And, like, that's. That's convicting. It's like, you're right. Jesus is like. And I didn't do any works in that town because nobody believed.

0:16:16 - (Natalie Abbott): Yeah. So I. I mean, that's that is a hard, that's a hard thing to wrap your head around. But I, I do think it's like, it should motivate us, you know, that, like, to be somebody who believes God for impossible things is an act of obedience. It's, it reminds me of the three guys that are friends with Daniel in that book where Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they are going to be thrown into the fiery furnace. And they were like, they're like, you know what? Our God is going to save us. But even if he doesn't, he's still God. Like, he has his purposes.

0:16:51 - (Natalie Abbott): And if he does, you're going to, you're going to witness a work here. But if he doesn't, he's still God. Do you know what? Like, I want to have that kind of boldness. Even, like, even in the way that I, like you said, the way that I speak to other people about the impossible things that I want God to do. I think for me too, another thing that practically that I do when I'm, when I have impossible, because I always do. I always have something impossible I'm praying for. I got five kids, but I write them in my journal and I, I actually kind of force myself because for me, sometimes it feels, it does, it feels vulnerable and like, oh, I just don't wanna, I don't wanna go there today.

0:17:38 - (Natalie Abbott): I don't wanna expose my heart that is wrapped up in this person that I'm praying for. And so I, I, I avoid praying those prayers. Even though I, I want to believe that God is gonna work. It's like, I don't wanna be involved in that work sometimes in a vulnerable kind of way. So I force myself to, like, I'll, like, write out in the front part of my journal, rip a page out and just write out those, those hard prayers and I'll force myself to pray them like, like, you're gonna do this every day, Natalie.

0:18:10 - (Natalie Abbott): And it really is helpful because I think then when I experience something that I, that, that where God is actually working, even just a small thing, it's like, praise you, Lord Jesus. I see that, you know, I see it more than when I'm, you know, not that I don't praise him when he does something amazing that is a prayer that I, like, prayed a long time ago, or I really, he knows I really want that. But, like, when I'm actively praying for that thing, there's something more profound, you know, that happens when I see him doing that work. It's like, oh, this is You. You see me, you see my heart here.

0:18:49 - (Vera Schmitz): It helps with remembering, too.

0:18:53 - (Natalie Abbott): Okay, quick, quick last question for you, Vera. You just brought up remembering, and I wanted to ask that question. How does remembering impossible things that God has done in your life affect your faith in him going forward?

0:19:06 - (Vera Schmitz): It's so. It is like the easiest, simplest light switch to turn on. Like, anytime I feel overwhelmed by a situation or something, I just. I just literally list them out, even though I know them. It's like I have a list by heart that I'm like, and this and this, and then he did this and then he did this and then he did this. And when I do that, it just. It's like, oh, yeah, that's who God is. And. And if you've never done it before, I've. I mean, this is probably the thousandth time that I've recommended doing this. Like, just make a list. I. I have multi. They're like stored in my pockets, in every pair of jeans. Like, I find them all the time where I like, wrote out all my miracles. And it's not like a big long. It's literally. Sometimes I just put the letter of the person's name where I saw God work.

0:19:57 - (Vera Schmitz): But, like, I list it all out and I put it in my pocket. I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, this. I can trust God no matter what happens. Like, he's faithful and. And it just is.

0:20:10 - (Natalie Abbott): It re.

0:20:11 - (Vera Schmitz): It. What's the word? It encourages you to have a right perspective and remembrance of who God is. And when you have that, then you're. It's like you're suited up to pray or to think about the situation in a right way.

0:20:29 - (Natalie Abbott): I think. I think just to encourage you guys, maybe, maybe write this verse out. Jesus replied, what is impossible with man is possible with God. I don't know why I'm feeling beclmped here, but I'm thinking about my own. My own situations. Like, to write that on, like, that is true. And then write out the things that you've seen God done. Even, like, things in scripture that God has done. Like, write those things out, things in nature that you're like, man, that is so impressive.

0:21:00 - (Natalie Abbott): Things in your own life that you've seen God do. Just write all those things down and then maybe write out the things that you're still praying for. And I think that would help affirm in you a belief that like. Like, at some point these things on the bottom part of the list are going to move up to the top part of the list, you know, Anyway, that's just me thinking. Draw some arrows when it happens, too. Go back to that list.

0:21:25 - (Vera Schmitz): Keep them in your pockets.

0:21:28 - (Natalie Abbott): All your pockets and your drawers. I do know that Vera has. This is like a Vera practice, but it's such a good one. All right, Vera. Thanks for joining me today and y' all listening. Thank you for listening to us, and I hope that you're encouraged that God can do impossible things.

0:21:44 - (Vera Schmitz): Amen.