We hear it so often that it’s lost the power to transform us. It’s a bumper sticker, a slogan, a greeting card. Finally, when it doesn’t manifest as and when we thin it should, a delusion.

That’s exactly the way Satan likes it. He wants us to believe that the blessings Jesus has guaranteed us will never come.

“Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30, ESV)

Satan reads this passage and piles the persecutions so high that we stop seeing anything else.

Uh oh, I smell inspirational greeting card. Let’s hold our noses and open it up:

“Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)

If, like me, you’ve been coping with disappointment, frustration, futility, this Scripture may add bitterness to the mix.

Guilty as charged.

This is a hard thing for me to admit, but the admission doesn’t change anything. That’s because I can’t change anything, but Jesus can, and He has.

There are two things I have desperately wanted and needed for a long time. Doesn’t matter what they are, only that, to observers, it looks as though my wishes simply can’t come true.

Jesus says otherwise.

More than that, He’s begun to show me the way through — a way I hadn’t seen because He was blocking the path.

So, why aren’t I testifying about wishes come true?

Because they haven’t yet.

See, God doesn’t rain blessings willy nilly down from Heaven. All those parents, children, spouses, houses, and lands come from only one place.

“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:4-5)

That sounds a lot like another passage I’ve pounded into your brains. In fact, some of you have given up on me because you thought I was saying that blessings should only flow to the weakest parts of the body.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” (I Corinthians 12:21-25)

That’s right, we’re supposed to help each other. The weak can help the strong because, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (II Corinthians 12:9)

It seems there’s someone out there whose hopes and dreams have gone unfulfilled. The situation is desperate, as in on-the -brink-of-homelessness desperate. Prompted by the Word as read on this blog, this man took a huge risk last year, but he was forced to take it in a place where the seeds he sowed don’t flourish. Now, he’s so over-extended that he can’t get back to that place. Consequently, he spent most of last year hating Jesus and hating me.

The odd thing is that, in terms of homelessness, we stand on the same brink, my friend.

What’s the problem? If Jesus has shown me a way, why don’t I just take it?

Because the way out is through my almost-homeless friend, and his way out is through me. Problem is, he hasn’t seen it because Jesus has blocked the path until now, and He’s used this very blog to do it. See, like Abraham, I was asked to sacrifice something precious, something that would have made my wishes come true. I was asked to blog about how I was suffering, and then this blog went dark because my computer died. Even now, I have to beg for the use of a computer; hence the sporadic posts. Jesus has His reasons for that, too, and for forbidding me to buy a computer, get a hair cut, and spend money for anything but bare necessities.

The irony is that if my friend would take the next step, another wish we share would come true.

Jesus is calling for another huge risk on the part of a man whose last big risk has had mostly punishing results.

Funny how we’re on similar paths. Last year around this time, I too took a big risk. Prompted by Jesus, in the face of incredible fear, I put my feelings and yet another of my deepest wishes out there on this blog. My risk, too, has had punishing results.

No matter, Jesus said to me. Lay down your life for your friends again, and again, and again, even though apparent failure has made you guarded, fearful, and bitter.

This post is that risk, and I am scared to death, because I’m getting personal again, wearing my heart on my sleeve, so that the body of Christ will experience a growth spurt, and the wishes of two battered but still hopeful humans will come true in the process.

Now it’s my friend’s turn to take the risk at Jesus’ behest. To take courage and go in the direction Jesus has been pushing him since we met. To reach out (you have the phone number) and confide the wishes and dreams God has put in his heart. I won’t judge you, scorn you, second guess you, give you a “reality check”, laugh at you, or turn my back on you. I want to talk about exactly how Jesus can make our wishes come true, and you won’t believe how it’s going to happen.

It’s time to look the mounting evidence, the words you’ve read on this blog, even the whole world in the eye and say, “With God, all things are possible.”