The Most Important Miracle

In the past year I've been privy to a lot of talk about and experience with miracles. Honestly, it's been pretty awesome. But it tends to be a slippery slope. It's so easy to have my mind always on seeking out God's hand and completely ignoring His face. It's easy to let my worship slide away from my first love and instead simply settle for the supernatural.

And one of the most unsettling things I've seen in my own heart in all of this is that it seems to be a lot easier to get more excited about healed bodies than healed hearts. Paul describes what is supposed to be of first importance to us:

"That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance to the Scriptures."

What Paul says isn't signs and wonders, but the Gospel. Everything in our Christian life is to point to the Gospel. Healings and miracles are important only in that they point to the Gospel. But it's important to know that salvation, too, is a miracle. In fact, it's the only miracle that actually matters. What use is it for someone's legs to be healed if they're only able to walk confidently to hell? What use is it for a cancer patient to be made well if all they have to look forward to is a comfortable path to damnation?

So why on earth is it so easy for us to freak out in excitement towards healings and other miracles, but respond to salvation with excitement, but more excitement out of the fact that that's how you're supposed to react towards salvation?

I think I've come up with three reasons why we tend to under react to God's greatest miracle. Over the next few days I'll highlight these three reasons.

Baby Steps

It's been a while so I thought I might give an update on where I'm at for anyone out there who cares.

Last year I was closer to God that I think I've ever been. It was amazing how intimate of a relationship I had with Him. But this year things have been different. Especially for these past few months. I've been feeling pretty distant from God lately and am nowhere near where I was last year.

Last year was crazy. God showed me sides of Himself that I didn't know existed before then. I buckled down and disciplined myself to daily pursue Him. I'd lose sleep if I had to just to have time to spend with Him. I dropped other hobbies like reading and games and time with friends just to spend time with Him. And that's the difference. An intimate relationship with God isn't self-sustaining. It requires discipline and effort.

With the mess of things that have been going on these past few months, I've allowed myself to lose my discipline. And I'd love to just jump back in to where I was, but the truth is, it doesn't work that way. I didn't get to where I was overnight. I didn't leave there overnight. So I shouldn't expect to get back there overnight either. So what the Lord is teaching me right now is the importance of baby steps.

I'm not trying to have hour and a half long quiet times. I'm not trying to take three pages of notes on one verse. I'm just taking my time. If I just read one verse a day, but the Lord speaks to me through that, then I'm blessed that He chose to speak to me that much. It's all about discipline and baby steps back to my Father.