Needing to share excitement while waiting for your miracle
The miracles that God works in our lives bring with them such excitement that we want to share them with the world. Nothing compares to those moments when our faith meets His provision, and the impossibilities of our situations bow down to the all-powerful God of the universe. One would imagine that such overt displays of His power and love would be met with joy, and that everyone who had ever doubted Him would believe and fall to their knees to ask Jesus to come into their hearts. This is often not the case, however.
Many people try to appease their own consciences by picking miracles apart, trying to produce any shred of evidence — whether real or fabricated — that would expose them to be either fake or coincidental. They seem to feel the need to disprove the miraculous, and to discredit any person connected with it in an attempt to convince themselves that they’re OK — and that they have no need of God’s intervention in their lives.
Unfortunately, it’s not only atheists or people of other religions who display these critical attitudes. Just as Jesus discovered in His earthly ministry, opposition often comes from the very people we would expect to be the first ones to celebrate with us.
In John 5, Jesus healed a man who had been ill for 38 years. He told him to pick up his mat and go home. When the religious leaders saw the man carrying his mat on the Sabbath (a violation of their interpretation of the Fourth Commandment), they missed the very heart of God and began to criticize something that they should have been celebrating.
After three years of trying to explain away His miracles, the chosen people of God — the ones who should have celebrated His coming — had Jesus crucified. Then they even had the audacity — despite many eyewitness accounts of His miraculous resurrection — to spread rumors that His disciples had stolen His body from the tomb. They refused to believe the truth that was right in front of them.
Later, those same religious leaders would come face-toface with yet another undeniable miracle. A man — known by all to have been crippled since birth — was walking, leaping and praising God in the temple after Peter and John had healed him in the name of Jesus. Even though they couldn’t deny that a miracle had occurred, they couldn’t bring themselves to celebrate. Instead, they tried to sweep it under the rug and convince Peter and John not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore.
Not much has changed since then. I’ve seen many selfproclaimed believers who — either by word or action — deny that God is still working miracles. To be honest, I’ve been one of them a time or two, myself. It’s easier to criticize or ignore the things we can’t fully understand than it is to believe that God’s Word is true, submit to Him and walk it out by faith.
So, what are we to do then? Should we avoid sharing our miracles with others because we’re afraid of being rejected? Absolutely not! Whether they believe them or not, the people around us need to hear the testimonies of what God has done in our lives. Each time we tell someone of His goodness, we are giving the Holy Spirit one more opportunity to try and soften his/her heart.
The miracles that God works in us and through us are too beautiful to keep to ourselves. We just need to know that when we share them, some people will scoff — possibly even friends we thought would be supportive. However, if we prepare our hearts ahead of time to be ready to answer questions — and even joyfully accept criticism — their reactions will not be as likely to catch us off guard and discourage us. We will not only be able to maintain our composure, but we will also remember that — no matter how things might appear — God is doing much more in that moment than we have the ability to see.
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Milligan is a Poteau resident who went on a mission trip to Guatemala just before Labor Day.