I believe that God can (and does) perform miracles in this world at various times and places, often (but not always) in response to the prayers of His people.
However, as followers of Jesus, we need to realize that God often wants to work in and through us in “non-miraculous” ways, which are actually quite miraculous. It all depends on our Spirit-inspired creatively and our definition of a “miracle.” Let me give some examples.
Many churches pray for God to heal people who have cancer. But maybe God wants you and your church to love and entertain children who have cancer. Or maybe God wants you to set up free medical clinics for cancer victims in your community. Or maybe you can offer help to people who smoke and eat too much cancer-causing foods.
Many churches have building funds, and ask the people to pray about how much God wants them to give to it. But maybe, rather than pay for a new church building, God wants you to feed the poor in your community. The average church building costs at least $1,000,000. Do you know how many people that would feed? At $10 per meal, that’s 100,000 people you could feed! Not even Jesus fed that many!
Maybe, rather than praying for God to miraculously keep troubled marriages together, you can set up free marriage counseling through your church, which includes things like free babysitting, budgeting help, anger management, conflict resolution, and other things that married couples struggle with. For a couple in trouble, another couple offering to help is a miracle.
Maybe, rather than praying for God to bring people to your church to fill the pews on Sunday morning, you can go to their houses and change the oil in their car, mow their lawn, or help replace shingles on the roof.
These are just a few ideas. The possibilities for miracles in your community are endless. But most often, they don’t occur by praying for them. Pray if you want to, but I say, “Stop praying for miracles, and just go be one.” It’s true…maybe you can’t feed 500 people…but you can feed one, and you will be a miracle to that person.
There you go again, making all kinds of sense, you freaking heretic!
How you haven’t yet been burned at the stake is beyond my comprehension.
🙂
Bullet,
I was just doing the dishes and thinking about you! Yes, I am a man and yes, I do the dishes.
I am working on that “getting burned at the stake” thing. I have a blog series in mind (or maybe a book?!?) called “Biblical Lies Christians Believe.” Either that, or “Bible Bull$#*!” The title alone is enough to get me condemned….
Of course, it’s all in my head, and I haven’t written a word yet, which probably means it will never get written…and therefore, I get to avoid that crispy flesh side-effect of getting burned at the stake.