When Your Miracle Doesn’t Come - iBelieve Truth - September 14, 2023
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20, ESV
What happens when you stand on a promise of God and it doesn’t come? Do you give up? Walk away? Decide God can’t be trusted? The times in our lives that create the most confusion about who God is and what he’s about, are opportunities to exercise a fighting faith.
We can try to put God in a box or fit him into our cultural understanding of what he should do for us, but God is more than we can imagine. His ways and his thoughts are higher than ours. We can cling to his love for us. We can choose to obey him. We can choose to lift our eyes to him, acknowledge our disappointment and confusion, but plant our feet firmly on the Rock.
Yes, he does do more than we can imagine, but we can struggle with his timing. Will we see it in the here and now? Or will it be later? And what happens when we have a calling or dream, and it seems like we are failing? It makes me think of the Israelites when they left Egypt dressed for battle, but God took them the long way around because he knew if they faced an army, they didn’t have the inner fortitude to stand firm in battle.
God sometimes calls us to steps of obedience, like Abraham when God called him to go to a place he’d never been. Let’s consider our own journeys in life when we’ve traversed somewhere new. We pull out a map, study the interchanges, and figure out where the roundabouts are. We don’t know what the landmarks look like or what the traffic will be like. It’s an unknown adventure of trust in the map to get us from point A to point B.
Following God is trusting him to bring us from where we are now to where he wants us to be. We may face peaceful streams or raging rapids. People may cut us off or refuse to let us through. Situations may seem like giant roadblocks, and we take an unexpected detour with very few signs to point the way. The path grows long and discouraging, and the only thing keeping us going is the glimpse of a future glory God showed us at the start of the journey.
Life presents challenges and we can decide how to respond. Further in the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes about putting on the armor of God. We have a fighting faith, but how often do we forget? We can stand firm on God’s promises but sometimes fail to do it.
Sometimes I forget that “greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). I’m not seeing the results I hoped for. My obedience seems like it’s all for naught. Other women are experiencing freedom and success in their lives and I’m stuck traveling around the same set of issues again, for the fortieth time. My miracle isn’t coming.
Or is it? Maybe it’s not so much about the outward miracle, but the miracle taking place in my heart. Life doesn’t fit into neat and tidy boxes. It’s messy and my response to it can reveal how far I’ve come and how far I need to go. I might be clinging to God’s promises with my fingertips, but am I standing on his Word?
He is hope. He is light. He is Living Water. He is the Bread of Life. He is our very breath. Our circumstances may not reflect our desired miracle, but God in us is our miracle. And in that, he does immeasurably more than we can ever think or imagine. He renews weary hearts. He bears our burdens. He loves us with a faithful, steadfast love. He comes to our rescue. He restores the broken places and turns deserts into springs.
Let’s pray:
Holy God,
We give you glory and honor forever. You are the miracle. You are our hope. It is you we look to, not our hardships or disappointments. We fix our eyes on you, and we plant our feet on your solid promises. Thank you for loving us with an everlasting love.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
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If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.
Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.
Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.
I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
