God doesn't (always) do miracles

May 16, 2010

I read a story on boundless the other day. I liked this line I read:

"Son, God doesn't always do miracles," he insisted. "It doesn't mean He's not God."

I think I often want miracles. Amazing things that I can point to later on to tell others of how God's been amazing and gracious and just plain mind-blowing. But then I remind myself, miracles are called miracles for a reason. They're rare, and we aren't suppose to rely on them. Rather, it's in the ordinary that I am suppose to see God in. The very ordinary, sometimes painful, sometimes joyful reality, that I must see God in and point to for others to see God in. And know that despite times when no miracle happens, God is still God. And He is still working things for the good of me.

But I still hope and pray for miracles. Or am I just asking for things to go my way? I guess at the heart of it, sometimes I want my miracles to happen, because I feel like then in that I can glorify God. But who knows better how to glorify God other than God? Who am I to think that if I got my miracle, my way it would glorify God more or equally as much as what God's way and will is? Yeah, so it's a letting go of self. Letting go of all control. Letting go, or attempting to, of all struggle, of all wrestling and really just sitting down at God's feet and saying, "God I'm tired of fighting myself and You; I give up. May Your will be done."

And I guess that's what the Boundless story reminded me of as well. It is a story of a guy who gets trapped in a chimney, but he can hear everything his family is saying while they cannot hear him. He listens as his wife tearfully thinks that he left her, as his son tells of how he misses him and wishes he'd come back to play some legos with him. And all the while, the trapped guy can only sit in the chimney, stuck, with no way out, listening to his family hurt, while not being able to do anything. And as his regrets and frustrations well up, he becomes angry at God for the times that no miracle occurs. He continually asks for a way out, for God to save him, that he won't die in that chimney, never to be found. After wrestling with the frustrations for a few days, as he feels his life source slowly ebb away, he finally lets go of these thoughts, and just accepts that God is God no matter what miracles happen or do not happen. And as he closes his eyes, accepting the death that was sure to come in the next few hours, he wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed; they had found him.

I guess what struck me was that the entire time he was begging and wrestling with God for God to save him, that he could see his family, that he could have a second chance. But it was not until he finally placed all in God's hands, and trusted that no matter what happened, God is still God, and He is still good, that a conclusion came about. Yeah, he could have died. And I think the main point isn't that things turn out alright and well for him once he let God have the reins, but that the ending isn't all that important; it's that process. Even if the guy had died, what is important is that he learned the letting go and the realization that God, with or without miracles, is still God.

And it's the entire submission of self and life to God that I am learning. That when my heart is completely set on having His will be done in my life, He will take me along that path and no matter what befalls me, I must seek to glorify Him and seek to see Him in all things.

God is the Master Designer, and He allows adversities into your life to see if you can jump over them properly—”By my God I can leap over a wall” ( Psalm 18:29 ). God will never shield you from the requirements of being His son or daughter. First Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you . . . .” Rise to the occasion—do what the trial demands of you. It does not matter how much it hurts as long as it gives God the opportunity to manifest the life of Jesus in your body.

(Utmost, May 15, 2010)