I had only been a Christian for a few months when our church experienced something amazing. A woman came to the church elders, asked for prayer, and stood on her extremely strong faith. The pastor and elders directly laid hands on her while the entire church extended their hands in agreement. Together, we prayed and agreed for her healing from cancer. This was her second or third experience with a serious ailmentand she was thoroughly convinced shed be healed. The following week, she returned with her testimony: her Muslim doctor looked at her scans, said Youre a Christian, arent you? and told her to get out of his office. She no longer needed his medical care. In keeping with her faith, she was healed. We felt our understanding of Gods unconditional love fall on us!
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Jeremiah lamenting over the destruction of Jerusalem, Public Domain
She saw a miracle; we saw a miracle. As a church, it felt like our miracle as much as hers, because we stood and believed for it. We also drew on her miracle because many of us were believing for different things in our own lives. The majority of these things came and went without a miraculous result. Some believed God for new jobs or promotions. There were people earnestly standing in the gap for unsaved or troubled family members. Others longed for familial reconciliations or to resolve issues in their marriages. Still, some believed for greater or bigger visions for ministry. Most of us wanted God to move through us in mighty and miraculous ways, thinking the working of miracles to be a great place to start.
Great faith was our focus. Unconditional love wasnt on our radar. In an even bigger way, none of us considered what Gods unconditional love meant to us.
When reality creeps in
We had great faith; we didnt have a lot of love. Love, after all, wasnt something that would draw crowds. When push came to shove, the church was still full of people, full of the human condition. Many of our members didnt always act as Spirit-filled as they claimed to be. We all hoped we would be the ones who would work the miracles. Nobody wanted to be the one to answer for why someone didnt receive one. If anything, we avoided that question. We believed we would be the ones to see miracles. We werent going to have to face God, day in and day out, without what we wanted.
Life passed from season to season and miracles came, but often went without a church-wide impact. If anything, the next several years would be hard on that little church. The pastor left. To follow, the church fell into schism for the second time in its twelve-year existence. A few strong members died, including the woman who brought me to the Lord. She believed God for years for her healing from Parkinsons Disease. At least this side of heaven, her healing never materialized.
Our deepest, understated hope: God would heal the human condition. Miracles would abound in such abundance that they would fix everything wrong with our lives. We loved the presence of God (being in a space where God met needs), but we never walked in the glory of God (loving God for Who He is). Our expectation was for God to meet needs to prove He loved us. None of us ever thought about what our love to God should look like. In hindsight, I dont feel we considered God and His perspective enough in our interactions with Him.
God has feelings, too!
Recently at Sanctuary (my church in Charlotte) we studied Jeremiah 16. Anyone who has ever studied the prophets in detail especially in the context of a chapter at a time, giving pause to think about text knows they are full of very strong words. The contents are both spiritual and emotional in nature. The emotions described arent just those of the humans involved, but also those of God. Gods experience, spoken through the prophets, ranges from jealous and scorned lover to sorrowful partner, One Who is left at a loss in the wake of terrible offenses committed against Him.
We dont often read Scripture and think, Gee, I wonder how the Israelites made God feel or Wow, God must have had some strong feelings to express His words so powerfully. No, we look at Scripture and we try to pick out the parts, dissect the parts that cause us the least bit of challenge when it comes to our relationship with God. Our focus is the embrace of passages that make us feel positive and seen. When it comes to dealing with relationship our call to consider how our actions might impact God we skip over those. We assume if God is going to do something, it should be miraculousshow-stoppingsomething that intervenes in the natural order of life, without thought or commitment. This would prove He loves us unconditionally, right?
Gods love when there are no miracles
I believe in miracles. Within my understanding, miracles are as relevant and active today as they were in Biblical times. I also believe that, if we look at the Bible, miracles didnt exist to undo the human condition, which is too often what we hope they will do. This is as true for us as it was for Israel back in the day. Israel knew God in miracles, whether they knew from their own experiences (a personal touch or a witness to one) or in testimony of their history with God, as a people. They knew God was mighty and could do amazing things, but they didnt know God despite themselves.
All the signs in the world didnt give them the heart to love God as they should, because signs didnt cure the human condition. They point to God, they show His ability and His nature, and they might even dazzle and shock a bit, but they are, indeed a starting point. They dont replace the day-in, day out call we have to find God in both our ordinary as well as our extraordinary.
A look at the prophets
If we honestly study the prophets, we will see there arent many recorded miracles in the prophetic books. Sure, such are acknowledged, but in the book of Jeremiah, for example, there are no records he ever performed a single miracle. While many today would require a prophet to be a miracle worker, Jeremiah wasnt; far from it. If anything, Jeremiahs word was as heavy and intense as his personality. His word from God revealed an entirely different view of God than we see in earlier writings, such as Exodus or Deuteronomy.
Jeremiahs picture of God is not as an endless miracle worker, guiding His people with a certain level of intimacy and comfort. Instead, God is seen as a God Who doesnt do for us what we can do for ourselves. God isnt a different deity. His unconditional love isnt absent. His people, however, and what they want, is different. They are no longer a wandering tribal group, eating bread from the sky in the desert. Now, we see a weak and crumbling nation. Theyve been through a number of judges and kings, split into two, and fallen into idolatry repeatedly. They want to chase after other gods, reaping their benefits, while expecting God to look the other way at their deliberate missteps.
Who was in the wrong?
While people sit back and think it was wrong of God to let the Israelites have the results of their pursued idolatry, they dont consider the people failed to follow Gods boundaries. God had to allow them the experience of working things out themselves. Through the actions of other nations, Gods will came about. It didnt happen through miracles, but a steady, consistent experience. This experience challenged Israel to examine itself (instead of blaming others). If they didnt want to follow God, God wasnt going to force them to do so. By stepping aside and allowing them to experience the consequences of their choices, God showed His unconditional love to Israel.
Have what you wantbut dont expect the benefits of God if you want the results of an idol.
Gods unconditional love in human experiences
God let Israel walk through the results of their actions because He loved them. He lets us do the same, day in and day out, for the same reason. In those places, we experience the unconditional love of God the most: right where we dont get miracles, but instead, the results of human behavior. As we walk through the result of consequences, we experience God long-term. We cry out; He doesnt rescue us. He walks beside us, with us, through it, in it.
When in these states, we demand a miracle. Our expectation is that God should prove Himself to us; but God doesnt. He patiently waits for us to come to the end of ourselves so we can find Him so we can reconcile ourselves. We need to see what we do does to Him as well as what it does to others. In our trial, in our struggle, we find God to be our constant presence and help in ways we dont recognize without such an experience.
Over the years Ive been Christian, I have seen far more people not get what they want from God than those who do. Some believe for years, holding on to their vision. Eventually, many move on, hoping for different things to manifest. Sometimes their understanding changes and they want something different than they once did.
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