Faith contingent on the occurrence of miracles risks disillusionment.
Jesus personified perfect compassion, yet he never cured every sick person or resurrected every corpse. He did nothing to help John the Baptist, his cousin and one of his staunchest allies, who was imprisoned and eventually executed.
The apostle Paul lived with an unknown chronic malady. He asked God to remove it three times, but his petitions went unanswered, with no explanation.
He eventually surmised that God allowed his affliction to persist to diminish his self-sufficiency.
In desperate situations, we should pray ceaselessly for positive outcomes, even if they seem improbable. God still works wondrously 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 from our distress, and that he will resolve our situation as he deems best, an appraisal that is always accurate.
Read More About Rightful Expectations
If God performs miracles only in the times and places of his choosing, what can we rightfully expect from him?
