Especially among the young
we hear the expression “No way!”
as an exclamation of disbelief in hearing something that was declared
impossible. The road was closed. It's usually accompanied by a shaking of the head.
On the contrary, in reply
you sometimes hear the comeback as just the single word “WAY!”
indicating “Oh Yes, it is
possible!” That's the way God counters our
expressions of sad disbelief and unbelief. God comes up with the one perfect way out of the impossible.
We sometimes encourage
hope in one another by saying, “God makes a way where there is no
way.” That truth is implied throughout the Old and New Testaments
and in the experience of Christians worldwide through the ages. The
supernatural comes into play where the natural ends. The Divine
Possible begins where the human impossible is encountered. Most
Christians can nod heartily to experiencing that in their own lives
in times of desperation. In my own life that has proven true time and
again. God comes through in some unexpected WAY “out of the blue!”
The Scriptures frequently
use the term “the way.” “Way” is used both for a literal
journey and a way of living one's life. It contrasts the way of the
wicked and the way of the righteous. It is used as a figure of speech
for the direction of one's life. The Psalms abound in this use. It
culminates in God finally giving us His bottom line in Isaiah 55:8-9:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts.” In the Gospels it bursts forth in Jesus' declaration, “I
AM the WAY and the Truth and the Life.” It is especially
significant that the THE WAY was adopted in the early church as the
name for the Christian movement itself (Acts 9:2;19:9; 22:4).
God is a Maker
of Ways where there are no
ways in our personal lives today—in my life
and in yours—as well as historically for His people. We limit Him
by our lack of faith when we express “No
way!” We somehow think that when we've
exhausted all of our efforts to bring ourselves through a seemingly
impossible situation, that is the end of it. However, when our
efforts run out, God begins to work and Philippians 4:13 begins to
rev up: “I can do all things through Christ.” The Holy Spirit
either whispers or shouts to us, depending on our circumstances:
“WAY! Just
watch God work!”
Believe it! The Lord might
suddenly show up to REscue me in a surprising new way,
a fresh angle to the solution, something way
out in left field, the better
way that He has been planning all along. He
was just waiting until we hit rock bottom, come to the end of
ourselves, and get out of His way
so that He can make that unique way
which we didn't even know existed. That's His modus
operandi, the WAY God works on what we call
impossible things.
Consider Isaiah 40:4
echoed in Luke 3:4,5. God is a Specialist in making rough places
smooth and narrow places broad, crooked ways straight, and moving
mountains and hills when He takes over my problems—and yours. He is
always at work on the impossibles: He brings water out of rocks,
creates streams in the desert, ways in the wilderness, feeds
multitudes miraculously, and provides angelic guidance by clouds and
pillars of fire.
I'm going to work on the
spiritual habit of declaring with God “Yes,
WAY!” in my hopeless situations. Is
anything too hard for Him? Thank You in advance, Lord, for Your road
construction work to make a Way even for me.
And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have
faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig
tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will happen. (Matthew 21:21)
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