After listening to Pastor Brian’s message from this past weekend on the subject of Believing God for a Miracle – I came home and Googled the word ‘miracles’ just for fun. Not surprisingly, there were pages and pages of Internet websites available on the subject. Even non-believers hope for miracles in desperate situations.
A ‘miracle’ is defined in part as: an unexpected event attributed to divine intervention.
In a perfect world wouldn’t it be lovely if we could log onto eBay and purchase divine intervention for a modest cost so we could apply it every 4-6 hours for miracle cures as needed. But as many a Christian will tell you – there is no magical formula when praying or believing for a miracle.
What we pray for in one situation rarely works the same way twice. God doesn’t want us to put confidence in our human abilities to pray a certain way; rather God requires us to put our faith solely in Him. God is always in control and does not follow a set formula when answering prayers. (Oh … if only!) He chooses to assert His divine intervention or not as He chooses.
I remember praying for a friend of mine years ago who was undergoing chemo for breast cancer. The ‘experts’ guaranteed she was going to lose all her waist-length thick blonde hair. Rather than accept the ‘experts’ opinion, I prayed relentlessly believing for my friend to keep her hair. Lo and behold … it was a miracle that she defied all odds and kept her gorgeous mane.
For a while I felt all puffed up with importance because I was a faith healing, miracle worker whom God listened to. Imagine my disappointment when I prayed the exact same prayers for someone else in the exact same situation that ended up losing all her hair! I was a little reluctant to pray for people after that disappointment.
Brian’s message resonated in my spirit because it reminded me that God is always the one in control – never we humans. The most important ingredient when believing for a miracle is simply … faith. One might question if faith is all that’s required, why doesn’t God answer every prayer? Because God is in control. Period.
Brian’s messages during his series on the Holy Spirit have challenged me to exercise my faith muscles. His messages have reminded me that it’s not about me, but about God. We can’t be afraid to step out in faith and pray for others because God hasn’t always answered all our prayers in the past. We’re not unqualified prayer warriors if our success rate is less than stellar.
If you’re a born-again believer and you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you – guess what … you’re qualified to pray for people! We have not, because we ask not. God’s Word instructs us to keep on asking … keep on knocking. God won’t answer the door if we fail to knock.
Blessings in Christ,
Kathy
www.kathleenkurlin.com
Amen and thank you Sister! I appreciate your thoughts on this matter.
Wow, Kathy! What a profound message, and so well explained. Thank you so much for sharing it! I’m passing it along to all of my friends, for sure! (The part about you thinking you were a special healer is hysterical.)
Thank you. This is water for my soul!
Loved it! Thanks for sharing.
Great message. Thank you for writing it Kathy. I want to share a miracle story that happened just this week.
My son Dylan was prayed for by his wrestling coach (a member of VCNP) just this week and received a miraculous healing. Just when Dylan thought he was done for the season (a devastation for a senior) – God healed his knee immediately, and enough to wrestle and win last night. Now he’ll finish the season and hopefully go to state. Praise God! And I’m thankful for this coach who took a huge risk on a school campus and prayed for my son. The team all knows about it and God is getting the glory.
I’m keeping the coach’s name a secret in case there would ever be any repercussions against him.
Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments! One of my goals for 2011 is to stop being so afraid to share my faith and to have a boldness to pray for others! Thanks Glynnis for an uplifting story! It’s sad that the worldview keeps us from praying in our schools – a place where prayer is desperately needed!
Pastor Brian’s series is resonating with a lot of us, I am finding, and your message Kathy and the responses here are more evidence of that to me! I discovered I HAD become one of the que sera (sp?) Christians, probably because I really do believe God is always in control (even tho that doesn’t mean I don’t take it back now and then!). Now, however, I am being reminded that God still wants me to ask for his miracles and still wants me to listen to him! This gives me a new focus for my intercessory praying AND my own prayers. Praise the Lord! and thank you Pastor Brian for your godly wisdom.