As I continue my thoughts about the miraculous I am struck by the number of people that I have spoken to this week that are in need of a HUGE miracle. Not just the run of the mill, “catching all the green lights as I am late to work”, kind of miracle, but a miracle where the supernatural invades the natural; those times where God’s will intersects with our need. We are living at a time where success is being redefined and more and more people are experiencing prolonged periods of joblessness or a reduction of pay. These prolong struggles can really do a number on peoples psyche and erode faith and self-esteem. This brings me to part 2 of The Making of a Miracle:
#2 The moment of the miraculous occurs in the way God wants.
As the Creator, it is God who has the right to do the things in the way He wants. This is important to understand, because in these times of prolonged struggles, it is easy to spend our time thinking about all the ways to get ourselves out of the bad situations of life. The stresses begin to push against us, mixing with the weight of the people that are depending on us, often causing the normally level-headed person to do some erratic things. I have seen people take jobs that they had no business taking or see a morally “gray” issue as “white” because it would help keep the power on in their home. Here in Las Vegas we have a slot machine called Megabucks which often has a jackpot in the tens of millions of dollars. I have, at times, played Megabucks and prayed, “Dear Lord please bless me with winning this jackpot. I will tithe the winnings and give money away. I’ll even buy my parents a nice vacation house.” Other times I have wished that I had a “long lost” relative that had amassed a huge fortune and after a long life, they pass away. In their generosity, they would leave some money to me. That would be awesome! Needless to say those prayers and similar outlandish prayers have yet to be answered. If God does ever decide to bless me in this way, I will be open to it, but until then it has been a lesson in the miraculous. What I have found is God works in the way He pleases. It is not my manipulation of Him or my creative thinking that will cause God to do something.
I see 2 major erroneous thoughts in a prolonged time of trouble. First, we get so creative in problem solving that we eliminate any chance for the Creator to be creative. We think about all of the “what-ifs” and begin to implement our escape plans without ever consulting our Maker. “Maybe I should get a new job.” “Maybe if I move cities life will be better.” “Maybe I should take this strange root from a strange tree in Africa to heal me.” If these “maybes” don’t work, we jump to the next great idea all the while leaving a wake behind us of broken dreams. Often we are just digging our hole deeper and deeper. Secondly, we can become so passive that we miss the moment of the miraculous and settle for the usual. We say things like “If God wants me out of this situation, He’ll do it.” If He never get’s us out of the struggle, in the way we think He should, we begin to blame God or others for the problems in which we continue to live. Both of these erroneous thoughts are wrong because it puts the focus on the wrong thing. Both are self focused. In the first, we clearly are the ones trying to force something into working. If it works great we may give God glory, but let’s be honest, IT’S ALL ABOUT US. We made it happen. We were creative and we got ourselves out. In the second thought, we are the judge of whether God actually is moving and working on our behalf. If He doesn’t act in just the right way or do it in a big enough way then it wasn’t Him moving at all. We want to see clouds parting and audible voices heard by all. This can be horribly paralyzing and let’s be honest, IT’S STILL ALL ABOUT US.
So what should we do? The prophet Isaiah says…
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Is 55:8-9 (NIV)
We have to learn to trust that God is thinking about us and knows what is happening in our life. Jeremiah says this,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer 29:11 (NIV)
We have a choice. Do it with God in His way or go at life alone in our way. Our loving God is waiting for us to let Him do what He does best… Work a miracle. We serve a miracle-working God and He is just waiting for us to give up and ask Him what He wants us to do. I guarantee that if we will spend more time listening than talking then God’s voice becomes a lot more clear. He wants to prosper us. He wants us to trust in Him. Your miracle may not be packaged the way you were expecting. It may not come through the means you had hoped. It may not even come as quickly as you would have liked it. But one thing is for sure, if you do your part and seek God, then He will do His part and cause the miraculous to take place in your life.
