Are you a morning person, raring to go first thing? Or are you a night owl, energised as the rest of the world heads for bed? It’s always interesting to see people in the morning: some are bleary-eyed and grumpy, taking ages to come round; others are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as the saying goes.

In Lewis Carroll’s fantastical book ‘Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland’, Alice has a conversation with the Queen of Hearts about impossible things:

“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

I don’t really think it matters whether you’re a morning lark or a night owl. The life of faith is about believing impossible things at all times of day and night in so many ways. God is a God who makes the impossible possible: ‘You do impossible things’, as the song says (Impossible Things’, Chris Tomlin) I think the Queen is right in telling Alice that practice is important if you want to believe impossible things. It doesn’t come naturally; believing the impossible requires commitment and effort!

Following God requires impossible faith. It requires us to believe the ‘impossible promises‘ He makes: that a 100 year old man will have a son, that the walls of an impregnable city will fall as people march around, that a giant can be slayed by a young man with a sling and five stones. It requires us to believe that the sea can part in front of us and give us safe passage; it requires us to trust that God is greater than fiery furnaces and lions’ dens. It requires us to look death in the face and believe there is more than our eyes can see.

At this time of doom and gloom, when we are bombarded with negativity on a daily basis, we need eyes of faith and committed hearts if we are to be the people God wants us to be. He wants us to believe more than six impossible things before breakfast, because He is the God of the impossible. As we stand on the promises of God, we know thatno matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.‘ (2 Cor 1:20)

Faith means speaking that ‘Amen’, agreeing with God that what He has said, He will do. As we do this, the impossible things become possible. We might not experience shrinking potions and talking cats as Alice did, but we will surely see the impossible happen as we align ourselves with the God for whom nothing is too difficult. (Jer 32:17)