Nothing is Too Hard

“O Sovereign Lord!  You made the heavens and earth by Your strong hand and powerful arm.  Nothing is too hard for You!  You show unfailing love to thousands, but You also bring the consequences of one generation’s sin upon the next.  You are great and powerful God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” – Jeremiah 32:17-18

Jeremiah is in prayer to the Lord.  This prayer, this conversation with God, is written here and I find it reassuring as it reflects how our own conversations, our prayers, with God ought to contain.  Jeremiah is praying for his people, his nation, and his home.  He begins by acknowledging that He knows God can do anything.  He has bought a field from prison from his cousin that tried to kill him for probably way too much money, because God instructed him to do it.  But now the city is under attack and it is obvious that the Babylonians will take it.  “Why”, he asks, “did I do such a foolish thing?”  We are a conquered people.  He admits that he understands the reason for the disaster.  My people “refused to obey You or follow Your Word”, “they have not done anything You commanded”, and “that is why You have sent this terrible disaster upon them”(v23).  However, as he stands there in it, his heart broken for his people and nation, he still wonders what purpose the Lord has for his direction.  He knows God can do anything, but is He going to do something?

The Lord answers Jeremiah in the faith that he has just proclaimed, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind.  Is anything too hard for me?” (v27).  The Lord then explains just how evil the people are and describes the things they’ve done.  He uses strong language.  The actions of the people have been numerous and are “an incredible evil” (v35).  Then the Lord promises to Jeremiah that there will be a day of restoration.  “They will be My people, and I will be their God”, “I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship Me forever, for their good and for the good of all their descendants”, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them”, and “I will put a desire in their hearts to worship Me and they will never leave Me.” (v38-40)  In this, the Lord tells Jeremiah that the city, the nation, and the people will function once again.  There will be buying and selling of land and that land that he has bought has a purpose.  That purpose was to illustrate to all the people that Jeremiah had hope in the Lord and the Lord had made a promise.  He was demonstrating, maybe without knowing it, that they were still invested in that promise even in the face of annihilation.

Are you in conversation with the Lord?  Is He leading you in actions or words to do things that make no reasonable sense to you?  Are you in the middle of an impossible attack with apparent certain defeat and it appears that God is not going to rescue you?  Do you think your actions or words are senseless or mindless and have no purpose? 

Maybe you are in what seems to be a hopeless situation.  But, no matter how bad the circumstances, remember Jeremiah, who followed God to buy land as the nation was conquered.  Join Him in faith and lay hold of the promises of the all-powerful God!  Nothing is too hard for Him!