Do y’all ever think about miracles? Jesus preformed miracles all the time and I know people who have experienced miracles in their own lives, but I don’t know if I can say that I have. I want some of that action, but Is there a reason that some people experience miracles today and others don’t? Would I even recognize a miracle if it happened?
So I started thinking, who do I know that has experienced a miracle, is there anything special about them? The answer is simply that all of the people I know who have experienced miracles are people who are 100% in on a relationship with God.
I’ve know of people who didn’t have money for groceries, and were given groceries. I’ve know people who needed a car and were given a car (umm-yes please Jesus). There are multiple people on my squad who where struggling to raise money and received huge anonymous donations out of the blue. Would we consider these things miracles? If not, what else would we call them?
I think that God never stopped working miracles, I think that we have blinded our eyes to what His miracles look like and instead started calling them ‘coincidences’ or ‘luck’. Or we choose to see the people that God uses to preform miracles, and attribute miracles not to God, but to other people’s kindness, not seeing God’s provisions for what they are. We expect God to blow us away and work in supernatural ways all the while ignoring the fact that He is working- but in the system that He already created: the natural law.
Our host in Romania told us a story about a time when he only had $50 in his pocket to provide for his family and the 18 orphans that we’re living with him at the time. When he went to church that night God prompted him to give all of that money to someone who needed some help. That’s pretty unconventional and honestly seems foolish- BUT God asked him to, and without understanding, he just did what God was asking. As he was walking home he was asking God how he was supposed to provide for his family and all those counting on him. When he got home someone was at his house and gave him an envelope filled with $500. Y’all, that’s a miracle.
Our host got to be the hands and feet of Jesus, a miracle, to the man in the church who needed money, and the person who gave him the $500 also got to be the hands and feet of Jesus, a miracle, to our host and his family.
If I’m so busy focusing and holding on to the little things I have, I’m going to miss out on the bigger things that God wants to give me. If I want God to show up and preform miracles in my life, I have to first be willing to participate and trust in Him. I have to give up my $50 bucks.
Am I suggesting that everyone go empty their savings account and give it away so that they can experience miracles? Absolutely not. This is not something transactional, we can’t barter our way in, we can’t trick God. What I am saying is that when we feel like God is asking big things of us, we can’t be scared to step into what He is asking, because odds are He has something bigger for us on the other side. It might not always be what we imagined it to be, or even the miracle that we wanted, but God doesn’t promises us what we want, He promises Himself.
Maybe God is asking you to give money, maybe He is asking you to give your time, or your attention, or your heart.
Recently a Bulgarian woman was praying and prophesying over me and she said “the bigger the sacrifice, the bigger the fire” (super dope right?), think about it, the more we give back to God (it’s giving back, not giving, because it’s all God’s in the first place), the more we free ourselves up to receive His blessings. The more of our heart we give Him, the more He will fill us. If we trust Him with small things, He will be faithful, but how exciting and awesome would it be to trust Him with the big things too?
I want to be all in when God asks big things of me. I want to give Him ALL of my heart. To be honest, I thought I already had (I hadn’t). He has been showing me this month that I am still holding some things back from Him, namely, my attention. My day is filled with so many distractions. Sure, I’m giving God time, but am I allowing my relationship and dependence on Him to grow if I’m only spending an hour with Him in the mornings then spending the rest of my day doing and thinking about anything else? God doesn’t just want my mornings.
There is a large part of me that is fighting against what I know God is asking of me, because I don’t want to give up things that I enjoy. Netflix and social media aren’t bad things, they only become bad when I choose them over God and make them into idols. When I feel the nudging in my soul to take a break from these distractions for a while and give up these things that deep down I know aren’t drawing me closer to God, I want to write it off as me trying to create rules and ‘earn my salvation through works’. Maybe that would be true if it this was from me, and there wasn’t that still small voice, saying ‘just trust me, I have something better’. And anyway, why am I so bent on holding onto this if I feel like God is telling me to give it up? I should want NOTHING more than I want God.
What kind of miracles do you think God could do if I just gave Him my time and attention? What could He teach me or show me? Who would I meet if I freed myself up enough to just go out walking with God? What could change if instead of sitting down to watch an episode of a show that I’ve already seen 3 times, I sat down and spent time just being with God, or growing with one of my teammates, or loving on my host.
I’ll never know if I don’t take that step. If I settle for small sacrifices, I’ll only ever see small fires in my life. Small fires are still acts of God, and God works despite us, but He wants to invite us into His workings. He wants us to be His hands and feet. He wants us to bring his kingdom here. Those are supposed to be big things, not just small things. We can’t do that if we settle for just giving God our Sundays, or an hour of our time in the mornings.
God is preforming small miracles in all of our lives and He uses them to say ‘hey, see that? Trust me with your whole heart, and I’ll show you so much more.’ All we have to do is just decided to see them and listen.
We are invited into whatever depth of intimacy we choose.
This month I have been really bad about choosing to go deeper by removing my distractions. Good news: God forgives me and He loves me, and He gives me grace. (He also forgives you, and loves you, and gives you grace too.) Here is some better news: it’s never too late to change and to give Him more. Today I can decide to give Him more and to trust Him with my time and attention. Today can be the first day of the rest of a life spent running after God into the crazy unknown. All I have to do, all you have to do, is take that first step of faith.
My hope is that we all start opening our eyes to God’s miracles and that we don’t settle for less that His best for us. Think about praying for what your next step of faith and trust looks like with God- but be ready to be uncomfortable. This isn’t something that’s going to be easy, and it probably won’t make too much sense up front, but it will be so worth it to see God show up. I want to give you some opportunities to join in some miracles (because I promised to do that), so, pray about it, let God lead you.
- Two of my teammates, Caroline and Emily, are still fundraising and our final deadline is quickly approaching. If God is calling you to step out in faith financially, please check out their blogs and consider supporting them. Their blogs are also password protected using the password ISQUAD2018 (just like mine). // or consider looking into stepping out in faith financially in a more consistent and continuous way by tithing at your local church, or sponsoring a child trough an organization like Compassion International.
- Next month, my goal is to spend more time with the Lord than I do on social media and to cut out Netflix completely. I don’t know what this looks like for you, but if God is calling you to give Him your time and attention, consider joining me. If this is something you’d be interested in, let me know! I would love to encourage you/be encouraged by you this next month!
Maybe God is asking you to step out in a different way- cool, do it. I don’t know what going deeper for y’all looks like, but I know we always have room to go deeper. That’s the thing about God, no matter how long we walk with Him, or how deeply we know Him, there is always more of Him to know. He is awesome like that.
Much Love,
Morgan
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