Miracles are a source of all sorts of emotions ranging from total euphoria to bitter resentment to baffling confusion. For those who have experienced some sort of supernatural intervention in their lives which has eliminated a tragic situation, certainly their belief in miracles is totally positive. But for those who remain suffering for years and years even though they have pleaded with God to intervene, there can be tremendous disappointment. And for many, there is the lingering question of why some people get miracles and others don’t? Is God just kind of whimsical in handing them out to people?
In what might be the most powerful miracle of his ministry, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus Christ gives us a glimpse of what God does through his special interventions in human life. While the relief of pain and suffering are definitely high on Jesus’ priority list, his overriding concern for everyone, regardless of their current situation in life, is that they recognize him as their Savior and are prepared for eternal life. That might be disappointing to us until we consider the alternative. What would be the point of healing a person of blindness, for example, but then the individual forgets the miraculous blessing, going on to lead a self-centered life apart from Jesus Christ and then spend eternity separated from the One who had cured him?
Understanding the eternal priorities behind physical cures and healings might also explain why God doesn’t always heal those who call out to Him. It may be that through personal tragedy God is using the pain of one person to bring another individual closer to him. That’s an extremely hard idea to accept, especially for the one currently suffering. However, it does give us hope in the goodness of God’s plan for our lives.
Human life is both messy and complex, leaving us with all sorts of challenging doubts and questions. We’ll never have everything figured out, but Jesus Christ gives us solid answers to consider. Join us this Sunday morning for our worship service. Together let’s go deep into the hard questions of life.
Sunday Morning Worship: 10:00 am