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How often do you hear (or say) words like these: “It’s going to take a miracle”? Whether it is regarding the more trivial case of a favorite sports team that is about to lose or much more desperate and destructive situations, people often invoke divine intervention. As Christians, we understand that it takes the power of God for us even to take our next breaths. Yet there are certainly circumstances in our lives in which we need something extraordinary. God must work in a mighty way, or we will experience some sort of pain or loss.
like mary and martha
What happens when what we seek doesn’t happen exactly when it is required? Mary and Martha desperately needed Jesus to show up and heal their beloved brother, Lazarus (John 11:1–3). When we reflect on this familiar story, our minds tend to skip to the end, when Jesus appears on the scene and raises Lazarus from the dead (vv. 43–44). Yet before that incredible resurrection takes place, Mary and Martha experienced the disappointment of not getting the healing they desired at the time they asked for it. When Jesus finally entered their village, Martha met Him outside the house, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21). Mary echoed these words when she saw Jesus (v. 32). These were some pain-filled rebukes toward the Lord Jesus. Mary and Martha believed that they could (and maybe should) have received a work of healing, but that time was now past. Little did they know of the greater work to come. Yet in the moment, they were angry and heartbroken.
Supernatural works that are necessary for the life and health of our loved ones are not the only things that often don’t occur. Many marriages need the extraordinary work of a relational healing in one or both spouses to see new growth and life. Christian parents can experience the pain of wayward children, yet faith and salvation haven’t come, even after years of prayer. Relentless emotional, mental, and relational suffering can also be joined to the disappointment of an unreceived work of God. In these times, the responses of Mary and Martha make sense to us. “Where were You, God, when I needed You?” Christians who read the stories of Scripture understand that God is perfectly capable of working upon faith-filled request. Thus, we can easily become disappointed and discouraged when we seem to be receiving a firm no from the Lord. How do we respond when we know that God can do something miraculous but isn’t doing it? How do we glorify God and remain as faith-filled obedient children when that doesn’t happen?
our theology matters
A right response begins with a firm grip on right theology. Christians seek the miraculous because we know that God is all-powerful, perfectly able to do all things. Yet a belief in His omnipotence must be firmly tethered to His omniscience: the fact that God knows all things. Unwittingly, we can act as though we are the ones who are all-knowing and that somehow God has missed something when He doesn’t act all-powerfully. Nothing is further from the truth. The reality that we must rest in is that God knows exactly what is required in all situations. That is why we can proclaim with Paul that God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory (Phil. 4:19).
Then we add the theological truth that God is perfectly good. A God who can do miracles and knows exactly when one is needed would not be a comfort to us without the fact that He does all things for the good of His people. Doubting God’s goodness often underlies our angry responses to a nonexistent miracle. We can begin to think of God in the way that we perceive people in our lives who have let us down. During times of suffering, we must hold fast to a God who is good and a God who loves His hurting children. These core truths fall under the wider heading of God’s wise and sovereign providence, His perpetual care, oversight, and rule over all things. As finite creatures, we require an infinite God who watches over all creation. He is not the Creator who created and then disappeared, leaving the governance of all things to us. When miracles don’t happen, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t providing or that He is failing to care well. He may not have provided as we had hoped or expected, but He did provide. Recognizing and holding on to who God really is, to a right biblical theology, reorients how we respond to the miracles that we desire.
While believing essential truths about God is exactly what our hearts require when we fail to receive our miracle, we still have our emotions to deal with. There is still real pain, sadness, and grief that don’t automatically disappear. What do we do with these hard emotions as well as the reality of what we are left with when the miracle doesn’t show up? The God who is sovereign and in control is the same God who comforts us in our grief:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor. 1:3–4)
Just as we turn to God for our requests, we turn back to Him repeatedly for comfort when the affliction remains and the sadness lingers. Again, our theology matters.
trusting god no matter what
Whether you need a physical healing, a relational mending, or a mental and emotional salve, trust in God’s provision no matter what happens. But also be on the lookout for a salve from the Lord that you may not expect or even think you need: an extraordinary work of a changed heart. Transforming a heart is something that only God can do by His divine power. He alone gives life to a sin-riddled, dead heart. He alone softens our hearts when they become hardened. He alone destroys the idols that our hearts often generate. This is the divine intervention that we don’t often ask for but that we require in all situations. Watch for how God performs miraculous heart change even if the other things don’t happen. God knows exactly what we need—and we always need further transformation of heart, mind, and soul.