I am a sinner. I hope no one comes to this blog and thinks of me as better than any other due to the ability I have to share my knowledge of Christ with you. I place my trust in God above all things. That's true, I sometimes pray for miraculous things. Sometimes they're answered with a yes, other times God knows better and leaves me with the condition.
Every Christian thinks they know better at times too. We're like Paul, we don't know what the thorn in his side actually was, but we know he felt he could do a lot more to build up the church if he didn't have it. Paul definitely holds a place of esteem in the church due to everything he did do. God knew this, Paul did everything God needed Him to do. Paul's thorn actually helped point him back to God at the same time.
When my prayers aren't answered to my earthly knowledge's satisfaction, I try to use those moments as my own personal thorns. Using them to point me back towards God. They let me know that God is in control of my life and on my own I can do nothing. However, this belief was to the point of a fault.
I don't want to put the family in the spotlight, so I won't get specific, but recently a friend of mine went through a tragic diagnosis of a family member. I knew this diagnosis all too well as it had stricken some one close to my life a year ago. In almost all cases of this diagnosis, the possibility of getting better is all but hopeless. I prayed and prayed for a miracle for the person I knew, and finally, that person was taken home to Heaven. It was a thorn in my side, as while I wanted this person to be miraculously cured, instead, this person had faith until the very end, and was a great reminder to point my faith toward Christ in situations that were admittedly less hopeless than theirs.
So when I heard the diagnosis of my friend's relative, I knew they only had a short time left. I prayed for strength in faith for them and a painless ordeal over the next few months or so. That friend instead proudly declared, "I know the diagnosis, but our family believes in God and miracles."
Again instead of joining in their prayer, I prayed that their faith wouldn't be threatened when things didn't go their way. My heart was truly in the right place, but sinfully, I didn't believe in God's ability to miraculously cure disease. I lost sight that in God all things are possible. Needless to say, I was being a skeptic of miracles.
Instead two weeks later, an incurable disease had mysteriously disappeared. But to my friend, this was no mystery at all, "The disease is gone, my relative is recovering, God is good!" Kind of a slap of reality. If I wanted, I could dig into similar case studies, where patients had gotten better "miraculously" but there really is no mystery.
A hopeless person in a hopeless situation turned to God and their prayer was answered. Miracles aren't just something from the Bible. God isn't just some guy who sits on a throne high above the Earth and just watches. What a reminder to me that miracles, true miracles are answered every day and all we need is faith.
God has not answered all my prayers the way I've always wanted Him too. He does this for my good. That said, I shouldn't always accept my situation as out of my hands, because when I do bring these things to God, He has the power to take them away from me. One day, my friend's relative will die, it's not because God forgot about them, but what a reminder it will be as they're nearing home of that great miracle He did give them once upon a time and the great blessing that will be waiting for them.
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