Do Miracles Still Happen?

One of my students recently ask, “Do miracles still happen?” I love the thought processes of teenagers. According to Oxford’s English dictionary a miracle is defined as: a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency. In other word, it’s a God thing. So are there miracles happening today? I believe there still are (see The God of the Impossible ) but not as frequently as before. There are several reasons for this.

1. The early Church saw many miracles used as signs to the believing Jews.

2. The early Church was in its formative years. Many of the New Testament scriptures were still being written. The Holy Spirit had been given and needed to be manifested evidently.

3. There was great need.

Honestly. I think this is the main reason why we as modern American Christians do not see many miracles. We don’t really need anything. We have all the modern conveniences and then some. We have more food than we can use. We have extras of everything. We have Amazon to drop anything else right at our door. We don’t have to rely on God because mostly, we rely on ourselves. Unless you are jobless or homeless you have an over-abundance. When you look at conditions in other countries around the world, even our homeless aren’t doing that bad. Google Haitian Biscuit for an eye-opening revelation into true poverty.

We live in relative peace and safety. There will always be crime, but we don’t usually go to bed in fear of government roundups, drug lords extorting money from us, or being attacked in the grocery store over a squabble for the last loaf of bread. We have a Constitution, Due Process, and other laws to hopefully guarantee our safety.

4. Our sight are set to low.

We often just let things happen. There is very little prayer and almost no desire to see God do above and beyond what we see on a daily basis. We are sadly, content. We have what we need and spend far too little time even thinking about the needs or afflictions of others.

Do you want to see miracles? Put yourself where there is true need. Busy your time with helping those who are desperately in need of a solution. Pray for miracles in tough situations. I do not wish tragedy, despair, homelessness, or extreme want on anyone. But it is there that you often see God’s finest work.  When we reach the limits of what we can humanly do, there we find that Devine intervention.

… You do not have because you do not ask God. James 4:2