When Did We Stop Believing in Miracles

The impossible happened yesterday. Tears were falling, as I sat there with gasping breath, not believing what I was speaking.

The earth grew silent. The world and all it’s particles stopped moving.

It was this moment, I had been waiting for. For years, God promised it. I longed, only hoped and anticipated…

Until finally, not in my timing, but at the exact moment God ordained it…

He did a miracle.

No, I know, we throw that word around, “miracle”, alongside similar phrases like, “I love you”, “I am fine”, and “You are awesome”.

Not sincerely or whole-heartedly, or from some spilling over from somewhere deep inside us…

But, non-challantly. Shallow.

Meaningless.

The miracle I saw, however, can’t be explained by some cliche. It wasn’t some, “Ya, that was just chance or some coincidence.”

It was a BIG thing, I mean, something that will likely effect generation after generation. Forever, really.

But, when did we cease from believing in miracles?

When did we use striving as a substitute? Hard work as an acronym? When did we replace our own tries and attempts, with the miracle working power of Jesus?

I am not going to lie, there were decades I missed Him. Missed Him in the big moves, in little ways, and even in the obvious happenstances of life, working.

But, He did. In retrospect, there wasn’t one area of my life that He wasn’t working….wasn’t there.

I was with my discipler one time years ago and I told her, “If God loved me, why did He let me experience ________.”

And there, through pain, and fear, through tears, and bitter fury, body rigid, clinging desperately in hope to define a God who wasn’t mean, or somehow howed favoritism….

He shows me.

He showed me the picture of pain, and Him being ever present. I mean, isn’t that what He says, “I am your ever present help in time of need?”

And no wonder, we started using God like the lottery. If I am good, God will bless me. But if I am bad, He will be silent and distant.

But, that’s not what scripture says. Scripture says, He is our EVER PRESENT help in time of need.

“I will NEVER leave or forsake you.”

I mean, He died on a cross to solidify His love and adoration for us. So we would never be forever separated from His love again…

Now, isn’t that a miracle?

Yet, again, somewhere along the way, we stopped believing. Where have you stopped believing that God is good, God will come through….God is a God of miracles?

And then, there are the small miracles. The rise of the morning sun, the sparrow being seen by God, the breath we breath, an infant forming in its mothers womb.

I mean, there is beauty, a reflection of His magnificance all around us. And that is a miralce.

God could have placed us in a some dry, barren land. He didn’t need to give us this glorious creation, free will, a life of choice…but He did because He is good and generous, and loving and patient.

Because love doesn’t just command, force, or demand. Love isn’t an angry dictator, pulling the strings of our lives like puppets.

It’s a “Will you follow me” type question He is asking. It’s a choice, to hear the Shepherd’s voice and willingly place our life into His hands.

And when you know He is good, when you see the love He has, in good times and in bad….when you see the miracles in even the smallest aspects of life…

Adoration grows. His Spirit draws us towards, this Father, this good, good Shepherd, this God who came down from heaven, to suffer, die, and resurrect so that we could celebrate relationship with Him.

And who doesn’t want a Father who IS peace, love, patience, kindness, and goodness?

Still, scripture tells us, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” (Matt 24:12)

Without love, can there ever be miracles?

Isn’t love the ingredient, the antidote, the content of what it is when we truly see miracles?

And maybe, instead of standing on some platform, waving some magic wand, maybe instead of praying harder, reading more, learning how to preach longer….

What if we just loved more, set aside our anger, hate, bitterness, and judement….forgave and gave generously more of our lives to Him? Would we see more of His power and grace….

We would see more miracles?

When did we stop believing in miracles, the multiplying of bread, the opening of eyes, the rising up the almost stoned, and the asking, to go and sin no more?

When did we stop trusting that the same God who raised Christ from the dead, is in us?

When did we distance ourselves from the God of the Bible? Take Jesus off His throne, make him a man we could understand and demand stuff from….fallen, broken…not powerful, victorious, or redeeming?

Why do we crucify Jesus again with our self-pity, false humility, shame, guilt, and posturing ourselves as defeated or helpless?

Why do we remove the power from the cross, redemption of sin, the message of His Spirit, or the miracles that He did from our preaching….

And then wonder why we don’t see miracles?