Faith contingent on the occurrence of miracles risks disillusion.
Jesus personified perfect compassion yet never cured every sick person or resurrected every corpse. He did nothing while John the Baptist, one of his staunchest supporters and his cousin, was imprisoned and later executed.
The apostle Paul asked God on three occasions to remove a chronic malady, but his petition was ignored each time without explanation. He eventually surmised that God let his affliction persist to diminish his self-sufficiency.
In desperate situations, we should pray ceaselessly for positive outcomes, however improbable. God still does wondrous things through miracles and divine providence. But he sovereignly chooses the nature and occasion of these wonders.
Like Paul, we must accept God’s answers to our prayers, even if a miraculous resolution never materializes.
We must trust that his ideas and methods are superior to ours, that he will generate goodness through our distress, and that he will resolve our situation as he deems best, an appraisal that is always accurate.
Read More About Divine Expectations
If God performs miracles only in the times and places of his choosing, what can we rightfully expect from him?
