Tag: miracles
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Slightly Obsessed #084: At the Edge of Faith
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
– Hebrews 11:6
Remember when you first discovered God?
Remember praying for the streetlight to change or the car to make it to the gas station? I remember praying as a young girl for God to help me find a cheap ring I had lost. I immediately found it after praying and was sure I had witnessed a miracle.
And I had. I had experienced my first baby steps in trusting God. These early simple lessons give us the foundation to fall back on as the trials get harder and God pulls us deeper into the mysteries of His love.
But God doesn’t intend for us to splash in the shallow creek of faith forever. Walking with God is a terrifying and exhilarating adventure that begins with training wheels and ends in the rarefied air of the heavenlies. Often, along the way, there will be many treacherous crossings at the abyss of despair, heartbreaking treks along the valley of Baca (weeping), and lonely journeys through the shadow of death.
In the beginning, God doesn’t give us more than our new natures can handle, just as we don’t allow a child at the controls of a plane. But as we grow up in Christ, God begins to take us up higher into new and more difficult territory. With each step toward Him, we wind up throwing away the baggage hindering the climb. This includes our own pre-conceived notions about Who this God is.
God intends for the true believer to grow in faith.
Since faith is, by definition, believing in that which we have not seen, the only way to grow in faith is to be pushed beyond what we know.
As we grow up in God, we begin to understand His personality, His ways, His expectations. We learn to recognize the sound of His voice. But if that is such a large step for us, it is but a baby step for an infinite God. He always has a new adventure of faith to reveal to us. The riches of His life are unfathomable for us, and completely unsearchable.
We don’t even know how to begin. And we are always surprised when He brings us to the next door of growth and we discover that it involves a greater exercising of our faith, more walking blindly toward His voice.
Like the early pioneers to America’s West, we find ourselves lurching along in the heat and desperately pitching the beloved remnants of the old life that we tried to bring along with us.
And that involves pain.
In the middle of nowhere, when we can see neither beginning nor end of the trail, we forget that we truly are heading somewhere, and it’s easy to lose both our heart and our trust.
But God is never confused, lost, or uncaring. He knows the end from the beginning, and He knows where we are headed. His timing is impeccable. He does everything perfectly, even when we haven’t a clue what is happening. Once again, God surprises us with deliverance, and our trust in Him is renewed and strengthened. We learn more about Him; we lose some unnecessary baggage along the way; and we get a bit closer to Home.
Excerpted from Song in the Night by Pam Thorson.
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Slightly Obsessed #058: When Dead Men Speak
When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’
– Luke 7:13
The widow shuffled behind the men who carried the body of her only son.
Despair gripped every line of her face. Her thin shoulders sagged under the weight of a life without hope.
Gone were the desperate prayers for God’s healing. Silenced were the frantic petitions, the faith in deliverance, the hope God would rescue them. There was only the sound of shuffling feet and a mother’s soft sobs as the procession made its way to the burial grounds.
Near the gate of the city, they encountered a group of people. A man in rough clothing emerged from the crowd and approached the woman.
She stiffened at this invasion of her grief. What did he want?
It was His voice that captured her attention. He only spoke a few words, but they stirred an undefinable longing in her soul.
“Do not weep.”
Do not weep? Was he blind? It was long past time for hope. There was nothing left but to grieve.
Then the man touched the coffin. According to Jewish law, the mere act would make him ceremonially impure for a time. He didn’t seem to care.
The next moment, it didn’t matter.
The dead man sat up and spoke.
In a single moment, life leapt from the grave. A man’s life was restored. A woman’s joy was resurrected. It had nothing to do with her faith or her good deeds. It was not because she said the right words or believed in a miracle.
It was, we are told, because the Lord Jesus Christ had compassion on her. He was touched by her grief, moved by her sorrow. In her moment of greatest loss, in an hour all hope was gone, God revealed His life-giving power.
Little did she know Jesus would soon be the son carried to the tomb, His own mother the grieving widow.
No one understood He was the Son born to die for their sins. He would not only rise from the dead under His own power, but He would break the hold of death forever for those who love Him.
When we encounter crushing trials, it’s tempting to believe we can call down a miracle if we incant the right prayers, keep a positive confession, or impress God with our faith. The truth is God can’t be manipulated. When He doesn’t answer a prayer in the way we want, it isn’t because we haven’t said the right words.
It’s because He’s God. He is sovereign Lord. His goal is our highest good. He often appears to leave us alone in our sorrows, only to come with power in an hour we are most broken, most lost, most hopeless. Along the way He has purified our motives, torn down our pride, and taught us the priceless lesson of trust.
You may be standing at the grave of something or someone very precious. Take heart. The Lord Jesus is here. He sees your heartache. He’s the God of compassion.
