The Miracle of Restraint

A lot of people have been asking me lately why there are no miracles anymore. Why does God just not show himself by performing a huge miracle?

“If I saw a talking ass Zaq, I would believe.” (I was pretty tempted to tell this person to look in a mirror…)

Now as much as some would like to say there are no miracles, I would like to disagree. There are countless miracles in our world. Plenty of people have been cured of illnesses with no medical treatment other than prayer. How about some of the survivors of 9-11 attacks on the world trade center? Several people lived for days under thousands of pounds of rubble. Let us not forget about every day miracles when families are brought back together, when people get through there depression and when people forgive others through Jesus!

Yes there are miracles! Now I know some of you are thinking, “Well that is some cool stuff but what about the big stuff? Why doesn’t God just perform some huge miracle and shut up his skeptics?”

I think one of the biggest reasons why we do not see big miracles today is because it is not broadcasted by the media. Nice stories that have a happy ending do not sale, they want tragedy and horror. Look at the Quecreek mine accident in 2002. There are mine accidents all over the US ever year but this one was different. It was declared a National Disaster. No offence to any of the nine who were trapped in the mine but there are bigger mine accidents every year that do not get attention like this. The reason why is because those other accidents have glimmers of hope. This accident looked hopeless but miraculously they were found. If you do not remember let me remind you.

The nine where trapped somewhere in the mine, the rescuers did not know where. They had an educated guess but knew the only way to get to them was to drill 240 feet into the earth. It was a race against the clock because the longer they were in the ground the better chance they would die, in addition the water in the mine was rising creating a watery tomb. 77-hours later, miraculously, the miners rose from the mine.

Did you forget about that?

Jesus had every opportunity to perform huge miracles. He could have gone to entire cities and snapped his fingers to heal all there sick, but he did not. He could have called fire and hail from the skies to make people believe, but he did not. He could have flown around like superman saying “hey look at me”, but he did not.

Why? Well that is the miracle of restraint. You see Jesus could have done anything huge to get followers (actually he was tempted too) but he did not. The reason why is because that is not the relationship he wants us to have with him. If he just did huge awesome things, would we follow him because we wanted to have a relationship with him or because he was cool? Yancey puts it best in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew.

"More amazing is his refusal to perform and to overwhelm. God's terrible insistence on human freedom is so absolute that he granted us the power to live as though he did not exist, to spit in his face, to crucify him. I believe God insists on such restraint because no pyrotechnic displays of omnipotence will achieve the response he desires. Although power can force obedience, only love can summon a response of love, which is the one thing God wants from us and the reason he created us."

God has given us every reason to believe in him. It is up to you to find him.