Doing the impossible is fun.

It’s not always fun in the midst of the battle, but it is definitely fun when you get to tell the testimony to everybody later.

Some people want to have a testimony without a test, and life doesn’t work that way.

Having faith in God is a lifestyle, and there are sacrifices and tests that come along the way when you walk with Him. Walking with God will always present us with impossibilities, with opportunities to show endurance, to sacrifice . . . it will change our thinking. And, if we will learn to live this way, we can change nations.

But we must learn how to walk with God through God-sized challenges.

Consider the life of Abraham.

Learn from Abraham: How to Face the Impossible

The Bible says in Romans that “no unbelief made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

Abraham had reasons to doubt God’s promises. God promised him that he would have a son and be the father of many nations. Yet Sarah was barren, and they were both very old.

And, without fail, doubts–reasons you shouldn’t trust what God has said–will present themselves to you in the midst of a faith battle. But, like Abraham, don’t let unbelief make you waver—instead, strengthen your faith by reading the Word of God. Build your faith until you are convinced that what God said He will do. Remind yourself of the promises of God.

In other words, you need to strengthen your faith by what gave you in faith in the first place.

This will make your faith strong, to where you can look at impossibility and not even be shaken. Yet sometimes, faith must endure through some tough circumstances.

Remember what God asked Abraham to do.

Abraham’s Life of Faith: A New Lifestyle

Abraham grew up in Ur, one of the most populated areas in his time. It would be like coming from New York City today. They had a library in a nearby town, and when it was excavated, it took 7 truckloads to empty it. When Abraham was born, they had 600 years of written history in this city. The laws of Ur predate the famed Code of Hammurabi.

Historians now know that Ur had roads, a postal service with stamps, and everyone was bilingual. Eighty percent of people lived in the city in Ur, which speaks of how developed it was– it means most people didn’t have to spend their time on seeking out food. They could pursue other things. The houses were two story villas, with thirteen or fourteen rooms. The military had chariots.

However, the city’s governor was also the priest, and the people worshipped the sun, the moon, and the stars.

And God told Abraham to get out of there.

Many people want to quote about Abraham’s riches in Genesis 13:2, that he had gold and camels, and etc., which he did have. And God indeed blessed him. But remember, Abraham came from the world’s largest city at the time, and after he said “yes” to God, he lived in a tent the rest of his life.

Abraham gave up comfort and civilization to follow God, just because God asked him to.

There is no such thing as a life of faith that does not make sacrifices.

The Sacrifice of Faith

When Abraham left Ur, he and some of his family became nomads. Nomads live off of the land. When land wasn’t enough to support both him and his nephew, Lot, Abraham let Lot pick out of the available land first. If a nomad doesn’t get the best land, he could die out there. Yet Abraham trusted in God’s provision.

And, when Lot was taken captive because the area he chose wasn’t so great after all, Abraham went after him. Abraham sacrificed the good land and his safety in order to bless his nephew. People of faith make sacrifices in order that other people will live a better life, because it’s what God asks us to do.

Sometimes God will ask us to be in circumstances that are foreign, challenging, uncomfortable, demanding, and frankly, sometimes scary. It must have been a little intimidating to go attack Lot’s captors. It was probably tempting to be a little fearful when God asked Abraham to move out of the city and into the unknown. It must have been challenging to not take his age or his body into consideration when he thought about the promise of God.

But people of faith think differently about these kinds of challenges.

The Thought Process of Faith

The thought process of faith is to focus on the answer, not the problem.

Before he was Abraham, he was Abram. His name meant “blessed father”.

One day, he had his name changed to Abraham by God, which means “father of many nations”.

Remember, at this point in his life, he is nearly a hundred years old, with no legitimate son to speak of, and begins to introduce himself as “Father of Nations.”

Can you imagine how his employees and friends thought about this? He introduces himself as “Father of Nations”, and yet he doesn’t have an heir. But he ended up hearing “Father of Nations” from everyone, every day. He changed the way he perceived himself to be what God had said he was. His focus was on God’s ability and not his problems.

Within three months, Sarah was pregnant. Within a year, they had a son.

He had to change the way he was thinking and what was said around him. He started saying “I’m the Father of Nations” because it got him to declare the impossible.

And then the impossible became history.

The Impossible Changes Nations

Faith that changes nations involves walking so closely with God that have such faith in Him and His promises that you do the impossible, like Abraham. If you do this, you’ll not only see the power of God, you’ll live in fellowship with Him, and trust Him–whatever the promise, and whatever the circumstance.

This is how you do the impossible.

Quotations from the ESV Bible