Miracles Can Take Time: Mark 8:22-26
Not all miracles are instantaneous! Jesus and His disciples came into the town of Bethsaida. Almost immediately, some people brought a blind man to Jesus and asked for Him to touch the blind man. By asking Jesus to touch the blind man their request is for Jesus to heal the man by touching him. Today, we don’t have Jesus with us physically as they did, so we pray and ask for Jesus to move.
Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village of Bethsaida. Once Jesus had the blind man outside of town He spit on the man’s eyes and laid His hands on him. Jesus asked him if he could see, and the guy responds by saying he sees men, but they looked like trees walking. It’s obvious the healing wasn’t complete or perfect yet.
Next, Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes, and he opened his eyes stating he now saw everything clearly! Jesus then told the man to go home, but to not even go into the village of Bethsaida. This miracle took more time and effort from Jesus than most. The point is miracles can take time.
I don’t think any of Jesus’ miracles are given to us by accident. Probably, they all have more than one purpose and one of the purposes for this miracle is the Lord wants us to know miracles can take time! The movement of God is tailored to the need of each specific situation and as such not all require instant healing. Some miracles can take more time, and only God knows why that might be! Our job is to go with what God provides and accept it by faith.
In October of 2014 I had brain surgery for a brain bleed. The doctor told me I wouldn’t be able to drive or go back to work for 90 days. I prayed and asked God to heal me and let me go back to work earlier than the 90 days. After a couple of days, I decided to set a goal to go back to work in one month, not three months like the doctor said.
I committed that goal to the Lord in prayer by praying what I call a prayer drill 12 times a day. I wrote out some scriptures and some requests for healing based on those passages from the Bible and went through the drill before the Lord a dozen times a day.
After one month I had a CT Scan of my brain. The doctor called and told me the healing was complete, and he would write a letter releasing me to drive locally and go back to work. He did put me on some medication for 6 months and ask I not drive long distances or on the freeway! I considered it a miracle and the doctor recognized my recovery was far out of the ordinary! It was a miracle but did take some time! Many miracles are like that.
Our nation and world are in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic! This is serious stuff and calls us to bring our request to Jesus for a miracle! Obviously, we don’t know exactly how all this will turn out! All the more reason for us to ask for the Lord to move and rid us of this plague. What I keep asking for the Lord to do is to move the Coronavirus Pandemic into recession today!
I’ve been on that prayer drive for a couple of weeks already, so it’s obvious this miracle won’t be instant and will take some time! At the age of 71 with a long history of diabetes and having had open heart surgery it would be unwise for me to not stay out of circulation, so I’m not working until the health officials say it’s safe to work.
We have had tough times before. Upon reflection this last week it occurred to me it’s not 1968 and I haven’t just received my draft notice! I have had personal times of challenge that probably are more devastating than this one! I’m not ill and don’t figure to be as I’m being careful and avoiding exposure to the virus. If I did get the virus there’s still a 95 percent plus chance I would recover and move on with the rest of my life! For me, if I died for some reason, I know it would simply be the Heaven Event, though I believe God still has some thing He wants me to do here!
Our nation has been through worse! The 1918 Spanish Flue Pandemic infected one third of the world’s population and killed at least 50 million people World-wide. 750,000 Americans died in the Civil War, 200,000 in World War l and we lost 400,000 in World War ll. We had the financial melt-down of 2008 and 2009. 911 is still hard to forget with nearly 3,000 Americans killed in a terrorist strike against our nation! We have lived through the great depression of the 1930’s. In all these times of trauma, we have come back!
Why do we keep coming back? We call on God to move in prayer! Keep at it and He will move again! In fact, I know He’s moving as I write this and as you read it. Pray! The miracle will take some time, but the miracle will come! Miracles often take time!
Tom West is a retired Pastor working in Advanced Planning with Myers Funeral Service in Porterville. You can reach Tom on his cell at 602.758.1168. He can help you with an Advanced Plan or with supply preaching.