Big Words of the Bible - Miracles

TJ Addington‘s Weekday Devos Podcast

One of the central tenets of our faith is that of a personal God who cared enough to create us, love us and redeem us. So why would we be surprised when God intervenes in significant ways in a miraculous way?

Think about it: The Bible is an account of the miraculous from start to finish: Creation; pregnant at 100; the plagues; the parting of the Red Sea; healings; God’s numerous interventions on behalf of the Israelites; the incarnation (God becoming man is perhaps the central miracle of all time); resurrection from the dead (the companion miracle to the incarnation) and many more. Of course God intervenes in human history for He is the author of history. It is literally His Story!

You and I are also the recipients of small or large miracles when God chooses to intervene on our behalf. CS Lewis said it well when he wrote: “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” That we are here is a miracle of creation and His family, the miracles of His incarnation and resurrection. So why should we be surprised when He miraculously intervenes in our daily lives?

I have experienced His miraculous healing on several occasions when there was no human reason to explain why I survived. Except the gracious intervention of a loving God who cares for us as a Father for His children. I am a walking billboard of God’s miraculous healing several times over.

Jesus invites us to pray for miracles. In Luke 11, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray with the Lord’s Prayer. It is a bold prayer with bold requests. But then Jesus goes on to expand His teaching on prayer:

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

I call this “Storming Heaven’s Gates,” and the one who occupies heaven invites us to do so! Why would He not care about the ones he created, became like us in the incarnation, and lives for us through the resurrection?

God is in the business of intervening on our behalf. Don’t be shy and don’t be surprised if He chooses to do something miraculous in your life. He probably already has, if you were paying attention.

Father, I am here because of the miracle of creation. I am your child because of the miracle of your incarnation, resurrection and salvation. Teach me to trust you in all things and to not be surprised when you divinely and sovereignly intervene in my life. Amen.