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I’d like to look at three different kinds of miracles we see in the Bible, to help us to be more aware of God’s miracles in our lives.
First, let me remind you about the widow at Zarephath. You’ll find her story in 1 Kings 17. She needed a miracle. She was down to nothing to eat; all she had was a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Her plan was to make one loaf of bread from this, and then die. But Elijah was sent by God to perform a miracle for her.
In order to receive her miracle, this widow had to give away what she had. She had only one loaf of bread and Elijah asked her for it. He promised her that if she would give away the little she had, God would keep filling up her flour jar and her oil jug. She obeyed and that’s exactly what happened. Every time she would go back to that flour jar, it would be full of flour, and the same with the oil. She would use all she had, but the next time she went back, there was more.
You see, some miracles are that way. God just makes what we have go a long way. Obviously, Elijah could have performed another kind of miracle and given her tons and tons of flour and oil at one time. But that’s no greater miracle than keeping her jar and jug continually replenished. And it meant she had fresh flour and oil all the time. Besides, she had to learn to trust God every day, didn’t she? Every day when she went back to the jar for flour, which she knew was empty yesterday, her faith was tested. Would there be flour for today? But there was, every day.
Maybe that’s the kind of miracle you need today—to trust God just for today’s needs. Perhaps you’ve been wanting him to shower you with a year’s supply of miracles, when he knows it would be best to give it to you a day at a time. Or maybe you haven’t been willing to give away what you have. You know, we reap what we sow, so whatever you need, sow those seeds. This widow needed food, so she gave away the little food she had. Then God performed a miracle for her.
Did you ever have a pair of shoes that wouldn’t wear out? Or maybe a car that kept going and going, even though you expected it to fall apart at any time? Sometimes God sends us miracles of this nature.
Think about the children of Israel during their forty years in the desert. In Deuteronomy 29 we read that during those years their clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on their feet. Can you imagine a fabric or shoe that would last for 40 years? If you wore the same thing every day, how long would your clothes or shoes last? Maybe a year or two, but not 40.
They needed a miracle, and God gave it to them. Imagine the problems they would have had if their clothes and shoes wore out in the wilderness, and there was no way to buy or make new ones.
Now, God could have provided for their clothing needs by some other method. My guess is that with all the griping and complaining they did while in the wilderness, God knew that if he sent them new clothes, they’d complain that they didn’t fit, or they wouldn’t like the style or the color. That was their attitude toward the food God provided for them. I can imagine the Israelites took those clothes and shoes for granted, without realizing it was God’s miracle that they didn’t wear out.
What about you? Has God been providing that kind of miracle in your life and you haven’t even recognized it? Or perhaps you haven’t appreciated it and wanted some “new clothes and shoes” instead.
God performs miracles for us all the time, when we open our eyes to see. And he uses the type of miracle that is best for us. Doing it your way could be all wrong for you and cause lots of other problems. So, when God chooses to work this kind of miracle in your life—making what you already have last and continue to meet your needs—don’t overlook it and be sure to be thankful. Just think where you would be if God didn’t work that miracle for you.
In 1 Kings 17 we read of another kind of miracle, when God told Elijah to go and hide in the Kerith Ravine, as protection from those who wanted to harm him. Each day God sent ravens to deliver Elijah’s food. Every morning and every evening those ravens would come with room service for Elijah. What a miracle!
Sometimes God uses this type of unexpected, truly remarkable miracle to meet our needs. I’m sure Elijah would never have expected ravens to deliver his food. On his own he could not have imagined such an answer for his need. But what a good idea it was. Elijah didn’t have to worry about anyone discovering him, since his food was delivered by ravens and not people.
I think sometimes we miss out on God’s miracles in our lives because we box him in. We want the answer to come in a certain package. We figure out ahead of time what God should do to meet our need, and then we inform him of our preferred method. But God doesn’t work by our job descriptions. What we must do is simply take our needs to him and tell him that we know he can meet our needs in many different ways.
I’ve been praying that God would supply some needs we have in the ministry through “unexpected sources.” I had begun to think that there was only a certain number of avenues through which God could send a miracle, and when they didn’t come in that way, then my faith started to waiver. Finally it dawned on me that God was not limited in his miracles. And as soon as I started to open up and pray for God’s method, not mine, he has started to work through different channels. It’s really exciting to see how creative God is.
Maybe you need a raven of some sort today—an unexpected source for a miracle. Trust God and don’t limit him as to how he can meet your need. You could miss out on a wonderful miracle if you do. So, keep your windows open and look for your ravens today.
Jesus performed many miracles during his three-year ministry, but he didn’t perform the same miracle for everyone, and he didn’t always perform the same miracle in the same way. In the Bible we are told of four different ways that Jesus made a blind person to see.
In Matthew 9 he touched the eyes of the two blind men who came to him, and immediately they could see. In Mark 8 he took the blind man outside the city and spat directly on his eyes and put his hands on him. The first time his sight was only partially restored, so Jesus put his hands on him a second time, and his sight was completely restored.
In Mark 10 he simply told the blind man to “Go, your faith has healed you.” So, without a touch of any kind, the man received his sight immediately. And then in John 9 Jesus made mud by spitting on the ground, and he put the mud on the eyes of the blind person. Then he told him to go wash the mud off in the Pool of Siloam. After he did that, he could see.
Now, why Jesus chose to meet the needs of these blind people in such different ways, I do not know. But it teaches us that he does things differently for different people at different times. In one case, it was a miracle in two-parts; didn’t happen all at once. In another, the blind man had to do something: go wash the mud off his eyes, so he was involved in the miracle. Sometimes Jesus touched them, sometimes he didn’t. But in every case, the result was a miracle: they could see.
When you need a miracle from God, don’t limit him as to how it can happen. If it’s a partial miracle, remember the blind man who was healed in two steps. If God asks you to do something as part of the miracle, it’s like the man who washed the mud off his eyes. Don’t refuse to be a part of the miracle, if that’s the way God wants to work for you.
But don’t be afraid to ask for and expect a miracle from God. He often meets our needs in miraculous ways, if we will have the faith to come to him, without preconceived ideas and answers, and simply allow him to provide the right miracle at the right time.
Perhaps you’ve been thinking that you don’t see any miracles at all. Well, why do you suppose you aren’t experiencing miracles in your life? Could it be because you don’t recognize them when you see them? Ask God to make you sensitive and appreciative of the miracles he is performing for you.
But if you’re not seeing miracles in your life, perhaps it’s because you have the grasshopper disease. You remember that, don’t you? When the twelve spies went to check out the miracle land that God had provided for them, ten of them reported back that even though the land was all they’d ever dreamed of and more, there was no way it would be the land for God’s people. Why? Because all the people they saw there were of great size. They said, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
Grasshoppers! God had promised them this land, but their focus was on themselves, and when they looked at themselves, they saw grasshoppers. They saw only the impossibilities.
The disciples did the same thing when Jesus asked them to feed the 5000. They looked at how much money it would cost and said it couldn’t be done. They never even considered that Jesus could provide a miracle to feed the crowd. They looked at the impossibilities instead of looking for a miracle.
As I meditated on these Scriptures, I said to myself, “Mary, how often you focus on your impossibilities, instead of looking for and expecting God’s miracle in your life.” How about you?
When asked what she wanted on her tombstone as an epitaph, Henrietta Mears (a Christian educator, evangelist and author) said, “Put on it, ‘If only I had trusted Him more.'” Isn’t it true that we limit God’s miracles in our lives because we don’t have enough trust in our God to ask for them or to expect them.
Look for some miracles today. He wants to bless you, but you must come to him in faith, believing that he can meet your need, and then allow him to do it in his way.